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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Z. Marcas by Honore de Balzac: of which we know not all the factors. When we start from zero to work
up to the unit, the chances are incalculable. To ambitious men Paris
is an immense roulette table, and every young man fancies he can hit
on a successful progression of numbers."
He offered us the tobacco I had brought that we might smoke with him;
the Doctor went to fetch our pipes; Marcas filled his, and then he
came to sit in our room, bringing the tobacco with him, since there
were but two chairs in his. Juste, as brisk as a squirrel, ran out,
and returned with a boy carrying three bottles of Bordeaux, some Brie
cheese, and a loaf.
"Hah!" said I to myself, "fifteen francs," and I was right to a sou.
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