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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Enemies of Books by William Blades: The dark portraits of past benefactors looked after us from
their dusty old frames in dim astonishment as we passed,
evidently wondering whether we meant "work"; book-decay--
that peculiar flavour which haunts certain libraries--
was heavy in the air, the floor was dusty, making the sunbeams
as we passed bright with atoms; the shelves were dusty,
the "stands" in the middle were thick with dust, the old
leather table in the bow window, and the chairs on either side,
were very dusty. Replying to a question, my conductor thought
there was a manuscript catalogue of the Library somewhere,
but thought, also, that it was not easy to find any books by it,
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