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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: accepted, for a payment of three hundred thousand francs, the odious
mission of making an unknown man fall in love with me and then
betraying him. I met you; I knew you at once by one of those
presentiments which never mislead us; yet I tried to doubt my
recognition, for the more I came to love you, the more the certainty
appalled me. When I saved you from the hands of Hulot, I abjured the
part I had taken; I resolved to betray the slaughterers, and not their
victim. I did wrong to play with men, with their lives, their
principles, with myself, like a thoughtless girl who sees only
sentiments in this life. I believed you loved me; I let myself cling
to the hope that my life might begin anew; but all things have
The Chouans |
