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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: hatred of the men he had tried to serve was so virulent, that he would
gladly have joined the coalition that was about to be formed among
certain ambitious spirits who, at least, had one idea in common--that
of shaking off the yoke of the Court. But Marcas could only reply to
the envoy in the words of the Hotel de Ville:
"It is too late!"
Marcas did not leave money enough to pay for his funeral. Juste and I
had great difficulty in saving him from the ignominy of a pauper's
bier, and we alone followed the coffin of Z. Marcas, which was dropped
into the common grave of the cemetery of Mont-Parnasse.
We looked sadly at each other as we listened to this tale, the last we
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