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Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honoré de Balzac
page 41 of 771 (05%)
"I thought I had done so much!" she said.

"Listen, my child. Your terrible reputation has cast Lucien's family
into grief. They are afraid, and not without reason, that you may lead
him into dissipation, into endless folly----"

"That is true; it was I who got him to the ball to mystify him."

"You are handsome enough to make him wish to triumph in you in the
eyes of the world, to show you with pride, and make you an object for
display. And if he wasted money only!--but he will waste his time, his
powers; he will lose his inclination for the fine future his friends
can secure to him. Instead of being some day an ambassador, rich,
admired and triumphant, he, like so many debauchees who choke their
talents in the mud of Paris, will have been the lover of a degraded
woman.

"As for you, after rising for a time to the level of a sphere of
elegance, you will presently sink back to your former life, for you
have not in you the strength bestowed by a good education to enable
you to resist vice and think of the future. You would no more be able
to break with the women of your own class than you have broken with
the men who shamed you at the opera this morning. Lucien's true
friends, alarmed by his passion for you, have dogged his steps and
know all. Filled with horror, they have sent me to you to sound your
views and decide your fate; but though they are powerful enough to
clear a stumbling-stone out of the young man's way, they are merciful.
Understand this, child: a girl whom Lucien loves has claims on their
regard, as a true Christian worships the slough on which, by chance,
the divine light falls. I came to be the instrument of a beneficent
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