| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: Malin, whose secrets were known to the bailiff, he being in a better
position than others to understand the conduct of the State
Councillor. Michu's father-in-law had had, politically speaking, the
confidence of the former representative to the Convention, through
Grevin.
Perhaps it would be well here to relate the circumstances which
brought the Simeuse and the Cinq-Cygne families into connection with
Malin,--circumstances which weighed heavily on the fate of
Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne's twin cousins, but still more heavily on
that of Marthe and Michu.
The Cinq-Cygne mansion at Troyes stands opposite to that of Simeuse.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Cousin Betty by Honore de Balzac: all our hearts! Only yesterday my brother and Celestine pledged their
all to pay off seventy thousand francs on notes of hand signed for
that good-for-nothing creature.--Yes, mamma, my father would have been
arrested and put into prison. Cannot that dreadful woman be content
with having my father, and with all your tears? Why take my Wenceslas?
--I will go to see her and stab her!"
Madame Hulot, struck to the heart by the dreadful secrets Hortense was
unwittingly letting out, controlled her grief by one of the heroic
efforts which a magnanimous mother can make, and drew her daughter's
head on to her bosom to cover it with kisses.
"Wait for Wenceslas, my child; all will be explained. The evil cannot
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: Mrs. Smith and the two girls, her favourites, which depict in
a strong light their characters and the society in which they
moved.
`My very dear and much esteemed Friend,' writes one
correspondent, `this day being the anniversary of our
acquaintance, I feel inclined to address you; but where shall
I find words to express the fealings of a graitful HEART,
first to the Lord who graiciously inclined you on this day
last year to notice an afflicted Strainger providentially cast
in your way far from any Earthly friend? . . . Methinks I
shall hear him say unto you, "Inasmuch as ye shewed kindness
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