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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: between Truth that limps and Falsehood to which Parisian wit gives
wings.
Madame Firmiani, like other noble and dignified women who make their
hearts a sanctuary and disdain the world, was liable, therefore, to be
totally misjudged by Monsieur de Bourbonne, an old country magnate,
who had reason to think a great deal about her during the winter of
this year. He belonged to the class of provincial Planters, men living
on their estates, accustomed to keep close accounts of everything and
to bargain with the peasantry. Thus employed, a man becomes sagacious
in spite of himself, just as soldiers in the long run acquire courage
from routine. The old gentleman, who had come to Paris from Touraine
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