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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: possession of such a document, each might kill the other without
danger in case of infidelity. But in spite of mutual promises, neither
wrote the letter.
The journalist, happy for the moment, promised himself that he would
deceive Dinah when he should be tired of her, and would sacrifice
everything to the requirements of that deception. To him Madame de la
Baudraye was a fortune in herself. At the same time, he felt the yoke.
Dinah, by consenting to this union, showed a generous mind and the
power derived from self-respect. In this absolute intimacy, in which
both lovers put off their masks, the young woman never abdicated her
modesty, her masculine rectitude, and the strength peculiar to
The Muse of the Department |
