| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie: the house yesterday afternoon, were you not, Manning?"
"Yes, sir, me and Willum."
"And Mrs. Inglethorp came to the window and called you, did she
not?"
"Yes, sir, she did."
"Tell me in your own words exactly what happened after that."
"Well, sir, nothing much. She just told Willum to go on his
bicycle down to the village, and bring back a form of will, or
such-like--I don't know what exactly--she wrote it down for him."
"Well?"
"Well, he did, sir."
 The Mysterious Affair at Styles |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Bride of Lammermoor by Walter Scott: restored it to some order. But not all his skill and labour, in
disposing to advantage the little furniture which remained,
could remove the dark and disconsolate appearance of those
ancient and disfurnished walls. The narrow windows, flanked by
deep indentures into the walls, seemed formed rather to exclude
than to admit the cheerful light; and the heavy and gloomy
appearance of the thunder-sky added still farther to the
obscurity.
As Ravenswood, with the grace of a gallant of that period, but
not without a certain stiffness and embarrassment of manner,
handed the young lady to the upper end of the apartment, her
 The Bride of Lammermoor |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Fanny Herself by Edna Ferber: work, lips compressed, a frown forming a double cleft
between her eyes.
Half an hour later he was there. Her office boy brought in
his card, as she had rehearsed him to do. Fanny noted that
it was the wrong kind of card. She would show him what
happened to pushers who pestered business women during
office hours.
"Bring him in in twenty minutes," she said, grimly. Her
office boy (and slave) always took his cue from her. She
hoped he wouldn't be too rude to Heyl, and turned back to
her work again. Thirty-nine seconds later Clarence Heyl
 Fanny Herself |