|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Village Rector by Honore de Balzac: expiation here below?"
"Yes," said the archbishop; "yes, my daughter."
"No, my father, no!" she said rising in her bed, the lightning
flashing from her eyes. "Not far from here there is a grave, where an
unhappy man is lying beneath the weight of a dreadful crime; here in
this sumptuous home is a woman, crowned with the fame of benevolence
and virtue. This woman is blessed; that poor young man is cursed. The
criminal is covered with obloquy; I receive the respect of all. I had
the largest share in the sin; he has a share, a large share in the
good which has won for me such glory and such gratitude. Fraud that I
am, I have the honor; he, the martyr to his loyalty, has the shame. I
|
