| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas: his eyes to heaven and shrugging his shoulders.
"Yes, it means us," repeated John.
"Where is Craeke?"
"At the door of your cell, I suppose."
"Let him enter then."
John opened the door; the faithful servant was waiting on
the threshold.
"Come in, Craeke, and mind well what my brother will tell
you."
"No, John; it will not suffice to send a verbal message;
unfortunately, I shall be obliged to write."
The Black Tulip |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Jolly Corner by Henry James: she stood oft, in the awful modern crush, when she could, but she
sallied forth and did battle when the challenge was really to
"spirit," the spirit she after all confessed to, proudly and a
little shyly, as to that of the better time, that of THEIR common,
their quite far-away and antediluvian social period and order. She
made use of the street-cars when need be, the terrible things that
people scrambled for as the panic-stricken at sea scramble for the
boats; she affronted, inscrutably, under stress, all the public
concussions and ordeals; and yet, with that slim mystifying grace
of her appearance, which defied you to say if she were a fair young
woman who looked older through trouble, or a fine smooth older one
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The American by Henry James: fool that he was for not stopping them then and there!
What better place than beneath the very prison walls to which they
had consigned the promise of his joy? He had been too bewildered
to stop them, but now he felt ready to wait for them at the gate.
Madame Urbain, with a certain attractive petulance, beckoned to
him again, and this time he went over to the carriage.
She leaned out and gave him her hand, looking at him kindly,
and smiling.
"Ah, monsieur," she said, "you don't include me in your wrath?
I had nothing to do with it."
"Oh, I don't suppose YOU could have prevented it!"
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