|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: percentage upon sums too large to pass through his control, while the
agency bought up cheaply the small and dubious claims, or the claims
of those persons who preferred a little ready money to a deferred and
somewhat hazy repayment by the Republic. Gobseck was the insatiable
boa constrictor of the great business. Every morning he received his
tribute, eyeing it like a Nabob's prime minister, as he considers
whether he will sign a pardon. Gobseck would take anything, from the
present of game sent him by some poor devil or the pound's weight of
wax candles from devout folk, to the rich man's plate and the
speculator's gold snuff-box. Nobody knew what became of the presents
sent to the old money-lender. Everything went in, but nothing came
Gobseck |
