| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Coxon Fund by Henry James: but when he sniffed at them I couldn't help taking the opposite
line, for I already felt that even should we happen to agree it
would always be for reasons that differed. It came home to me that
he was admirably British as, without so much as a sociable sneer at
my bookbinder, he turned away from the serried rows of my little
French library.
"Of course I've never seen the fellow, but it's clear enough he's a
humbug."
"Clear 'enough' is just what it isn't," I replied; "if it only
were!" That ejaculation on my part must have been the beginning of
what was to be later a long ache for final frivolous rest.
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Ruling Passion by Henry van Dyke: upon the multitude, and they cried aloud grievously in their dismay.
The blows of the weapons echoed mightily in the darkness, and the
two knights laid about them grimly and with great joy. The door was
too narrow for the flight. Some of the men crept under the lowest
berths; others hid beneath the table. Two, endeavouring to escape
by the windows, stuck fast, exposing a broad and undefended mark to
the pursuers. Here the last strokes of the conflict were delivered.
"One for the marquis!" cried Jean, bringing down his weapon with a
sounding whack.
"Two for the count!" cried Pierre, making his pan crack like the
blow of a beaver's tail when he dives.
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Glasses by Henry James: "Oh Flora can't keep a secret!"--Mrs. Meldrum made it light. She
went up to poor Dawling and laid a motherly hand upon him.
"It's all right--it's just as it ought to be: don't think about
her ever any more." Then as he met this adjuration with a stare
from which thought, and of the most defiant and dismal, fairly
protruded, the excellent woman put up her funny face and tenderly
kissed him on the cheek.
CHAPTER X
I have spoken of these reminiscences as of a row of coloured beads,
and I confess that as I continue to straighten out my chaplet I am
rather proud of the comparison. The beads are all there, as I
|
