The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: clothes. We addressed a few ordinary words to him; he seemed to think
that our mood had changed, and with that reserve that comes of misery,
he kept silence. Though from time to time we pressed each other's
hands that we might feel the mutual flow of our ideas and impressions,
we walked along for half an hour in silence, either because we were
oppressed by the heat which rose in waves from the burning sands, or
because the difficulty of walking absorbed our attention. Like
children, we held each other's hands; in fact, we could hardly have
made a dozen steps had we walked arm in arm. The path which led to
Batz was not so much as traced. A gust of wind was enough to efface
all tracks left by the hoofs of horses or the wheels of carts; but the
|