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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac: both master and mistress.
Madame Cesar went from the "Chat-qui-pelote" to the Rue des Cinq-
Diamants, and asked Popinot to let her take charge of his accounts and
do his writing, and also manage his household. Popinot felt that his
was the only house where Cesar's wife could meet with the respect that
was due to her, and find employment without humiliation. The noble lad
gave her three thousand francs a year, her board, and his own room;
going himself into an attic occupied by one of his clerks. Thus it
happened that the beautiful woman, after one month's enjoyment of her
sumptuous home, came to live in the wretched chamber looking into a
damp, dark court, where Gaudissart, Anselme, and Finot had inaugurated
 Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau |