|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: welcomed me, where the steps of the portico had a voice, where my
memory clothed with poetry the balconies, the fountains, the
balustrades, the trees, the glimpses of the valleys! to be hated where
I once was loved--the thought was intolerable to me. So, from the
first, my mind was made up.
Alas! alas! was this the end of the keenest love that ever entered the
heart of man? To the eyes of strangers my conduct might be
reprehensible, but it had the sanction of my own conscience. It is
thus that the noblest feelings, the sublimest dramas of our youth must
end. We start at dawn, as I from Tours to Clochegourde, we clutch the
world, our hearts hungry for love; then, when our treasure is in the
The Lily of the Valley |
