| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Weir of Hermiston by Robert Louis Stevenson: sacred in the memory. In the falling greyness of the evening he watched
her figure winding through the morass, saw it turn a last time and wave
a hand, and then pass through the Slap; and it seemed to him as if
something went along with her out of the deepest of his heart. And
something surely had come, and come to dwell there. He had retained
from childhood a picture, now half obliterated by the passage of time
and the multitude of fresh impressions, of his mother telling him, with
the fluttered earnestness of her voice, and often with dropping tears,
the tale of the "Praying Weaver," on the very scene of his brief tragedy
and long repose. And now there was a companion piece; and he beheld,
and he should behold for ever, Christina perched on the same tomb, in
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Paz by Honore de Balzac: Ronquerolles and my aunt Madame de Serizy. Dress yourself therefore,"
she said, taking the hand he offered to assist her from the carriage.
Thaddeus went to his own room to dress with a joyful heart, though
shaken by an inward dread. He went down at the last moment and behaved
through dinner as he had done on the first occasion, that is, like a
soldier fit only for his duties as a steward. But this time Clementine
was not his dupe; his glance had enlightened her. The Marquis de
Ronquerolles, one of the ablest diplomates after Talleyrand, who had
served with de Marsay during his short ministry, had been informed by
his niece of the real worth and character of Comte Paz, and knew how
modestly he made himself the steward of his friend Laginski.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Herodias by Gustave Flaubert: southern extremity, on the coast of Yemen, Antipas recognised clearly
what at first he had been able only dimly to perceive. Several tents
could now be plainly seen; men carrying spears were moving about among
a group of horses; and dying camp-fires shone faintly in the beams of
the rising sun.
This was a troop belonging to the sheikh of the Arabs, the daughter of
whom the tetrarch had repudiated in order to wed Herodias, already
married to one of his brothers, who lived in Italy but who had no
pretensions to power.
Antipas was waiting for assistance and reinforcements from the Romans,
but as Vitellius, the Governor of Syria, had not yet arrived, he was
Herodias |
