| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Edition of The Ambassadors by Henry James: "Don't like me, if it's a question of liking me, for anything obvious
and clumsy that I've, as they call it, 'done' for you: like me--
well, like me, hang it, for anything else you choose. So, by
the same propriety, don't be for me simply the person I've come to know
through my awkward connexion with Chad--was ever anything, by the way,
MORE awkward? Be for me, please, with all your admirable tact and trust,
just whatever I may show you it's a present pleasure to me to think you."
It had been a large indication to meet; but if she hadn't met it
what HAD she done, and how had their time together slipped along
so smoothly, mild but not slow, and melting, liquefying, into his
happy illusion of idleness? He could recognise on the other hand
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Fantastic Fables by Ambrose Bierce: show of herself that the Young Man would not marry her.
The Farmer and His Sons
A FARMER being about to die, and knowing that during his illness
his Sons had permitted the vineyard to become overgrown with weeds
while they improved the shining hour by gambling with the doctor,
said to them:
"My boys, there is a great treasure buried in the vineyard. You
dig in the ground until you find it."
So the Sons dug up all the weeds, and all the vines too, and even
neglected to bury the old man.
Jupiter and the Baby Show
Fantastic Fables |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac: fortune, the paper-knife in chiselled gold, the paper-weights of
carved malachite, and all the costly knick-knacks of unrestrained
luxury. The carpet, one of the rich products of Belgium, was as
pleasant to the eye as to the foot which felt the soft thickness of
its texture. Du Tillet made the poor, amazed, bewildered perfumer sit
down at a corner of the fireplace.
"Will you breakfast with me?"
He rang the bell. Enter a footman better dressed than Birotteau.
"Tell Monsieur Legras to come here, and then find Joseph at the door
of the Messrs. Keller; tell him to return to the stable. Leave word
with Adolphe Keller that instead of going to see him, I shall expect
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau |
