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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from A Daughter of Eve by Honore de Balzac: it is attributed to temperament; people are seldom willing to
recognize it as the secret effort of a noble soul.
About this period of her life, Madame Felix de Vandenesse had attained
to a degree of worldly knowledge which enabled her to quit the
insignificant role of a timid, listening, and observing supernumerary,
--a part played, they say, for some time, by Giulia Grisi in the
chorus at La Scala. The young countess now felt herself capable of
attempting the part of prima-donna, and she did so on several
occasions. To the great satisfaction of her husband, she began to
mingle in conversations. Intelligent ideas and delicate observations
put into her mind by her intercourse with her husband, made her
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