| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart: would never need her kindly offices again. Twice now, without
apparent cause, some one had entered the house by means of the
east entrance: had apparently gone his way unhindered through the
house, and gone out again as he had entered. Had this unknown
visitor been there a third time, the night Arnold Armstrong was
murdered? Or a fourth, the time Mr. Jamieson had locked some one
in the clothes chute?
Sleep was impossible, I think, for any of us. We dispersed
finally to bathe and dress, leaving Louise little the worse for
her experience. But I determined that before the day was over
she must know the true state of affairs. Another decision I
The Circular Staircase |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson: the eagle that he pursued all his life long, like a schoolboy
with a butterfly net. Hear him to a friend: "Let me suggest
a theme for you - to state to yourself precisely and
completely what that walk over the mountains amounted to for
you, returning to this essay again and again until you are
satisfied that all that was important in your experience is
in it. Don't suppose that you can tell it precisely the
first dozen times you try, but at 'em again; especially when,
after a sufficient pause you suspect that you are touching
the heart or summit of the matter, reiterate your blows
there, and account for the mountain to yourself. Not that
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Ballads by Robert Louis Stevenson: unfelt.
Note 8, "THE FIRST OF THE VICTIMS FELL." Without doubt, this
whole scene is untrue to fact. The victims were disposed of
privately and some time before. And indeed I am far from
claiming the credit of any high degree of accuracy for this
ballad. Even in a time of famine, it is probable that
Marquesan life went far more gaily than is here represented.
But the melancholy of to-day lies on the writer's mind.
TICONDEROGA
A LEGEND OF THE WEST HIGHLANDS
TICONDEROGA
Ballads |
