| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: me what it is? You know I would help you."
"I can't tell you, Harry," he answered sadly. "And I dare say it
is only a fancy of mine. This unfortunate accident has upset me.
I have a horrible presentiment that something of the kind may happen
to me."
"What nonsense!"
"I hope it is, but I can't help feeling it. Ah! here is
the duchess, looking like Artemis in a tailor-made gown.
You see we have come back, Duchess."
"I have heard all about it, Mr. Gray," she answered. "Poor Geoffrey is
terribly upset. And it seems that you asked him not to shoot the hare.
The Picture of Dorian Gray |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Virginian by Owen Wister: their pitiful masquerade amid a fringe of old tin cans, while at
their very doors began a world of crystal light, a land without
end, a space across which Noah and Adam might come straight from
Genesis. Into that space went wandering a road, over a hill and
down out of sight, and up again smaller in the distance, and down
once more, and up once more, straining the eyes, and so away.
Then I heard a fellow greet my Virginian. He came rollicking out
of a door, and made a pass with his hand at the Virginian's hat.
The Southerner dodged it, and I saw once more the tiger
undulation of body, and knew my escort was he of the rope and the
corral.
The Virginian |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: to you. About like this, you know." Once more his arms embraced a
circular space of air.
Before this I had never heard the young lady behind the counter enter
into any conversation with a customer. She would talk at length about all
sorts of Kings Port affairs with the older ladies connected with the
Exchange, who were frequently to be found there; but with a customer,
never. She always took my orders, and my money, and served me, with a
silence and a propriety that have become, with ordinary shopkeepers, a
lost art. They talk to one indeed! But this slim girl was a lady, and
consequently did the right thing, marking and keeping a distance between
herself and the public. To-day, however, she evidently felt it her
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