| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: "Open the quarter-deck ports! What for, sir?"
"The only reason you need concern yourself about is because I tell you
to do so. Have them open wide and fastened properly."
He reddened and went off, but I believe made some jeering remark
to the carpenter as to the sensible practice of ventilating
a ship's quarter-deck. I know he popped into the mate's cabin
to impart the fact to him because the whiskers came on deck,
as it were by chance, and stole glances at me from below--
for signs of lunacy or drunkenness, I suppose.
A little before supper, feeling more restless than ever, I rejoined,
for a moment, my second self. And to find him sitting so quietly
 The Secret Sharer |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Collection of Beatrix Potter by Beatrix Potter: them behind the coal-
box, and went to fetch a cradle.
HUNCA MUNCA was
just returning with
another chair, when suddenly
there was a noise of talking
outside upon the landing. The
mice rushed back to their hole,
and the dolls came into the
nursery.
WHAT a sight met the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac: shop, "my wife consents to the enlargement of our premises. If you
like, we will go and see Monsieur Molineux at eleven o'clock."
"My dear Monsieur Birotteau," said the umbrella-man, "I have not asked
you any compensation for this cession; but you are aware that a good
merchant ought to make money out of everything."
"What the devil!" cried Birotteau. "I'm not made of money. I don't
know that my architect can do the thing at all. He told me that before
concluding my arrangements I must know whether the floors were on the
same level. Then, supposing Monsieur Molineux does allow me to cut a
door in the wall, is it a party-wall? Moreover, I have to turn my
staircase, and make a new landing, so as to get a passage-way on the
 Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau |