| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Emma by Jane Austen: a most uncommon degree of popularity for a woman neither young,
handsome, rich, nor married. Miss Bates stood in the very worst
predicament in the world for having much of the public favour;
and she had no intellectual superiority to make atonement to herself,
or frighten those who might hate her into outward respect.
She had never boasted either beauty or cleverness. Her youth
had passed without distinction, and her middle of life was devoted
to the care of a failing mother, and the endeavour to make a small
income go as far as possible. And yet she was a happy woman,
and a woman whom no one named without good-will. It was her own
universal good-will and contented temper which worked such wonders.
Emma |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Foolish Virgin by Thomas Dixon: awkwardly and smiled.
"I hope you are very happy, meine liebe--ja?"
"I couldn't be happier if I were in Heaven," was
the quick answer.
"I'm so glad----"
Again an awkward pause.
"I was once young and pretty like you, meine
liebe," she began dreamily, "--slim and straight and
jolly--always laughing."
Mary held her breath in eager expectancy. Ella was
going to lift the veil from the mystery of her life,
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Man in Lower Ten by Mary Roberts Rinehart: The station agent was a young man with a shrewd face. He stopped
hammering a piece of wood over a hole in the floor to ask where we
wanted to go.
"We're not going," said McKnight, "we're coming. Have a cigar?"
The agent took it with an inquiring glance, first at it and then
at us.
"We want to ask you a few questions," began McKnight, perching
himself on the railing and kicking the chair forward for me. "Or,
rather, this gentleman does."
"Wait a minute," said the agent, glancing through the window.
"There's a hen in that crate choking herself to death."
The Man in Lower Ten |
