| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: an ante-room, a parlor, and a dining room. Above our floor again are
three rooms destined for the nurseries. I have five first-rate horses,
a small light coupe, and a two-horse cabriolet. We are only forty-
minutes' drive from Paris; so that, when the spirit moves us to hear
an opera or see a new play, we can start after dinner and return the
same night to our bower. The road is a good one, and passes under the
shade of our green dividing wall.
My servants--cook, coachman, groom, and gardeners, in addition to my
maid--are all very respectable people, whom I have spent the last six
months in picking up, and they will be superintended by my old
Philippe. Although confident of their loyalty and good faith, I have
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Hidden Masterpiece by Honore de Balzac: "Nothing. Can you?"
"No."
The two painters drew back, leaving the old man absorbed in ecstasy,
and tried to see if the light, falling plumb upon the canvas at which
he pointed, had neutralized all effects. They examined the picture,
moving from right to left, standing directly before it, bending,
swaying, rising by turns.
"Yes, yes; it is really a canvas," cried Frenhofer, mistaking the
purpose of their examination. "See, here is the frame, the easel;
these are my colors, my brushes." And he caught up a brush which he
held out to them with a naive motion.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Betty Zane by Zane Grey: low growls and then two short barks. Those in the room heard a soft moccasined
footfall outside. The next instant the door opened wide and a tall figure
stood disclosed.
"Wetzel!" exclaimed Colonel Zane. A hush fell on the little company after that
exclamation, and all eyes were fastened on the new comer.
Well did the stranger merit close attention. He stalked into the room, leaned
his long rifle against the mantelpiece and spread out his hands to the fire.
He was clad from head to foot in fringed and beaded buckskin, which showed
evidence of a long and arduous tramp. It was torn and wet and covered with
mud. He was a magnificently made man, six feet in height, and stood straight
as an arrow. His wide shoulders, and his muscular, though not heavy, limbs
Betty Zane |
