| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Pupil by Henry James: Pemberton held him fast, hands on his shoulders - he had never
loved him so. "What will become of you, what will you do?" He
thought of Mrs. Moreen, desperate for sixty francs.
"I shall become an homme fait." And then as if he recognised all
the bearings of Pemberton's allusion: "I shall get on with them
better when you're not here."
"Ah don't say that - it sounds as if I set you against them!"
"You do - the sight of you. It's all right; you know what I mean.
I shall be beautiful. I'll take their affairs in hand; I'll marry
my sisters."
"You'll marry yourself!" joked Pemberton; as high, rather tense
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: are richer than I, for you have treasures here" (laying her hand upon
his heart) "to which none but God can add." Then, unable to support
her happiness, she laid her head upon her husband's breast.
"My dear niece," said the old man, "in my day we made love; in yours,
you love. You women are all that is best in humanity; you are not even
guilty of your faults, for they come through us."
ADDENDUM
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.
Blamont-Chauvry, Princesse de
The Thirteen
Madame Firmiani
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Dreams & Dust by Don Marquis: So let them pass, these songs of mine,
Into oblivion, nor repine;
Abandoned ruins of large schemes,
Dimmed lights adrift from nobler dreams,
Weak wings I sped on quests divine,
So let them pass, these songs of mine.
They soar, or sink ephemeral--
I care not greatly which befall!
For if no song I e'er had wrought,
Still have I loved and laughed and fought;
So let them pass, these songs of mine;
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