| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: bound to each other for life in a moment, or we part with the celerity
of death itself. All things are hurried, like the convulsions of the
nation. In the midst of such dangers as ours the ties that bind should
be stronger than under the ordinary course of life. In Paris during
the Terror, every one came to know the full meaning of a clasp of the
hand as men do on a battle-field."
"People felt the necessity of living fast and ardently," she answered,
"for they had little time to live." Then, with a glance at her
companion which seemed to tell him that the end of their short
intercourse was approaching, she added, maliciously: "You are very
well informed as to the affairs of life, for a young man who has just
The Chouans |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Bucky O'Connor by William MacLeod Raine: up a deal with him, Mr. Reilly's wise play buncoes us and himself
out of thirty thousand dollars."
"Why don't you let him send for the papers first?"
"Because he won't do it. Threaten nothing! Collins ain't that
kind of a hairpin. He'd tell us to shoot and be damned."
"So you've got it fixed with him?" demanded Neil.
"You've a head like a sheep, York," admired Leroy. "YOU don't
need any brick-wall hints to hit you. As your think-tank has
guessed, I have come to an understanding with Collins."
"But the gyurl--I allow the old major would come down with a
right smart ransom."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories by Mark Twain: if he is being observed and admired?--those same old letters
which he fetches in every morning? Have you seen it? Have you
seen him show off? It is THE sight of the national capital.
Except one; a pathetic one. That is the ex-Congressman: the poor
fellow whose life has been ruined by a two-year taste of glory
and of fictitious consequence; who has been superseded, and ought
to take his heartbreak home and hide it, but cannot tear himself
away from the scene of his lost little grandeur; and so he lingers,
and still lingers, year after year, unconsidered, sometimes snubbed,
ashamed of his fallen estate, and valiantly trying to look otherwise;
dreary and depressed, but counterfeiting breeziness and gaiety,
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