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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Two Brothers by Honore de Balzac: dragoons of the Guard; but perhaps I shall be the one to support that
poor dear mother in her old age, while he, if he goes on as he does,
will end I don't know how. Bixiou often says to me, 'He is a downright
rogue, that brother of yours.' Your grandson is right. Philippe will
be up to some mischief that will compromise the honor of the family,
and then we shall have to scrape up another ten or twelve thousand
francs! He gambles every night; when he comes home, drunk as a
templar, he drops on the staircase the pricked cards on which he marks
the turns of the red and black. Old Desroches is trying to get him
back into the army, and, on my word on honor, I believe he would hate
to serve again. Would you ever have believed that a boy with such
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