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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Ursula by Honore de Balzac: marriage "in extremis" which they dreaded,--the only sure means by
which the doctor could defraud his relatives. Bongrand, on the other
hand, saw a private castle of his own demolished; he had long thought
of marrying his son to Ursula.
"If the poor girl loves that youth it will be a misfortune for her,"
replied Bongrand after a pause. "Madame de Portenduere is a Breton and
infatuated with her noble blood."
"Luckily--I mean for the honor of the Portendueres," replied the
notary, on the point of betraying himself.
Let us do the faithful and upright Bongrand the justice to say that
before he re-entered the salon he had abandoned, not without deep
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