| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Shadow Line by Joseph Conrad: man talk to me any more. I got up, observing
curtly that he was too much for me--that I
couldn't make him out.
Before I had time to move away he spoke
again in a changed tone of obstinacy and puffing
nervously at his pipe.
"Well--he's a--no account cuss--anyhow.
You just--ask him. That's all."
That new manner impressed me--or rather
made me pause. But sanity asserting its sway
at once I left the verandah after giving him a
 The Shadow Line |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery: if she takes the notion. Far as I can make out from her story,
Mr. Phillips has been carrying matters with a rather high hand.
But it would never do to say so to her. I'll just talk it
over with Rachel. She's sent ten children to school and she
ought to know something about it. She'll have heard the whole
story, too, by this time."
Marilla found Mrs. Lynde knitting quilts as industriously and
cheerfully as usual.
"I suppose you know what I've come about," she said, a little
shamefacedly.
Mrs. Rachel nodded.
 Anne of Green Gables |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Lesser Bourgeoisie by Honore de Balzac: understands itself, and is not cast down by your severity."
"Severity?" said the countess; "possibly. But you ought to think of
the kindness too. Question yourself carefully. We foreign women do not
understand the careless ease with which a Frenchwoman enters upon a
solemn engagement. To us, our YES is sacred; our word is a bond. We do
and we will nothing by halves. The arms of my family bear a motto
which seems significant under the present circumstances,--'All or
Nothing'; that is saying much, and yet, perhaps, not enough."
"That is how I understand my pledge," replied la Peyrade; "and on
leaving this room my first step will be to break with that ignoble
past which for an instant I seemed to hold in the balance against the
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