| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: window pane fell with softened light on her girlish face. A pile of
shaped pieces of linen told me that she was a sempstress. She looked
like a spirit of solitude. When I held out the bill, I remarked that
she had not been at home when I called in the morning.
" ' "But the money was left with the porter's wife," said she.
" 'I pretended not to understand.
" ' "You go out early, mademoiselle, it seems."
" ' "I very seldom leave my room; but when you work all night, you are
obliged to take a bath sometimes."
" 'I looked at her. A glance told me all about her life. Here was a
girl condemned by misfortune to toil, a girl who came of honest farmer
Gobseck |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft: within the wood of ancient legendry and horror. This man, Joseph
D. Galvez, I later met and questioned; and he proved distractingly
imaginative. He indeed went so far as to hint of the faint beating
of great wings, and of a glimpse of shining eyes and a mountainous
white bulk beyond the remotest trees but I suppose he had been
hearing too much native superstition.
Actually, the horrified
pause of the men was of comparatively brief duration. Duty came
first; and although there must have been nearly a hundred mongrel
celebrants in the throng, the police relied on their firearms
and plunged determinedly into the nauseous rout. For five minutes
Call of Cthulhu |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from House of Mirth by Edith Wharton: She questioned him intelligently, she heard him submissively;
and, prepared for the look of lassitude which usually crept over
his listeners' faces, he grew eloquent under her receptive gaze.
The "points" she had had the presence of mind to glean from
Selden, in anticipation of this very contingency, were serving
her to such good purpose that she began to think her visit to him
had been the luckiest incident of the day. She had once more
shown her talent for profiting by the unexpected, and dangerous
theories as to the advisability of yielding to impulse were
germinating under the surface of smiling attention which she
continued to present to her companion.
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