| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from In the South Seas by Robert Louis Stevenson: cards, a pretty girl, who swore I was the image of her father; in
all perhaps a score. Terutak's wife had returned (even as she had
vanished) unseen, and now sat, breathless and watchful, by her
husband's side. Perhaps some rumour of our quest had gone abroad,
or perhaps we had given the alert by our unseemly freedom:
certain, at least, that in the faces of all present, expectation
and alarm were mingled.
Captain Reid announced, without preface or disguise, that I was
come to purchase; Terutak', with sudden gravity, refused to sell.
He was pressed; he persisted. It was explained we only wanted one:
no matter, two were necessary for the healing of the sick. He was
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Adieu by Honore de Balzac: is so slender, so light, so filmy, she must be diaphanous. Her face
was as white as milk; her eyes, her clothes, her hair jet black. She
looked at me as she flitted by, and though I may say I'm no coward,
that cold immovable look froze the blood in my veins."
"Is she pretty?" asked Philippe.
"I don't know. I could see nothing but the eyes in that face."
"Well, let the dinner at Cassan go to the devil!" cried the colonel.
"Suppose we stay here. I have a sudden childish desire to enter that
singular house. Do you see those window-frames painted red, and the
red lines on the doors and shutters? Doesn't the place look to you as
if it belonged to the devil?--perhaps he inherited it from the monks.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Voice of the City by O. Henry: undying spirit of youth and beauty, this vision bad
dawned upon him with a thrilling and accusive power.
And so metabolic was the power that in an instant
the atoms of Ravenel's entire world were redistrib-
uted. The laden drays that passed the house in which
she lived rumbled a deep double-bass to the tune of
love. The newsboys' shouts were the notes of singing
birds; that garden was the pleasance of the Capulets;
the janitor was an ogre; himself a knight, ready with
sword, lance or lute.
Thus does romance show herself amid forests of
The Voice of the City |
