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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Marriage Contract by Honore de Balzac: refuse to come to Paris? Natalie is provoked with me, as if I were the
cause of your decision."
"I have thought it all over, my children, and I am sure that I should
hamper you. You would feel obliged to make me a third in all you did,
and young people have ideas of their own which I might,
unintentionally, thwart. Go to Paris. I do not wish to exercise over
the Comtesse de Manerville the gentle authority I have held over
Natalie. I desire to leave her wholly to you. Don't you see, Paul,
that there are habits and ways between us which must be broken up? My
influence ought to yield to yours. I want you to love me, and to
believe that I have your interests more at heart than you think for.
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