| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf: What a nuisance! Lost again. Don't bother, Mr Tansley. I lose
thousands every summer," at which he pressed his chin back against his
collar, as if afraid to sanction such exaggeration, but could stand it
in her whom he liked, and smiled very charmingly. He must have
confided in her on one of those long expeditions when people got
separated and walked back alone. He was educating his little sister,
Mrs Ramsay had told her. It was immensely to his credit. Her own idea
of him was grotesque, Lily knew well, stirring the plantains with her
brush. Half one's notions of other people were, after all, grotesque.
They served private purposes of one's own. He did for her instead of a
whipping-boy. She found herself flagellating his lean flanks when she
To the Lighthouse |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Copy-Cat & Other Stories by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: men stood staring at each other.
"Who be you, neighbor?" inquired the new-
comer.
The voice essayed a roughness, but only achieved
a tentative friendliness. Stebbins hesitated for a
second; a suspicious look came into the farmer's
misty blue eyes. Then Stebbins, mindful of his
prison record and fiercely covetous of his new home,
gave another name. The name of his maternal
grandfather seemed suddenly to loom up in printed
characters before his eyes, and he gave it glibly.
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Virginian by Owen Wister: had done without us. All was ready in the hall.
"We got the cook to help us," Mrs. Ogden told me, "so as not to
disturb your cigars. In spite of the cow-boys, I still recognize
my own country."
"In the cook?" I rather densely asked.
"Oh, no! I don't have a Chinaman. It's in the length of
after-dinner cigars."
"Had you been smoking," I returned, "you would have found them
short this evening."
"You make it worse," said the lady; "we have had nothing but Dr.
Mac Bride."
The Virginian |
