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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Purse by Honore de Balzac: de Rouville lived by gambling? Was she playing at this moment to
pay off some debt, or under the pressure of necessity? Perhaps
she had not paid her rent. The old man seemed shrewd enough not
to allow his money to be taken with impunity. What interest
attracted him to this poverty-stricken house, he who was rich?
Why, when he had formerly been so familiar with Adelaide, had he
given up the rights he had acquired, and which were perhaps his
due?
These involuntary reflections prompted him to watch the old man
and the Baroness, whose meaning looks and certain sidelong
glances cast at Adelaide displeased him. "Am I being duped?" was
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