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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan by Honore de Balzac: Piqued by these words, the Marquis d'Esgrignon looked at d'Arthez and
said:--
"Monsieur is not, I trust, on such terms with the princess that we
cannot speak freely of her?"
D'Arthez kept silence. D'Esgrignon, who was not wanting in cleverness,
replied to Rastignac's speech with an apologetic portrait of the
princess, which put the whole table in good humor. As the jest was
extremely obscure to d'Arthez he leaned towards his neighbor, Madame
de Montcornet, and asked her, in a whisper, what it meant.
"Excepting yourself--judging by the excellent opinion you seem to have
of the princess--all the other guests are said to have been in her
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