| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Confidence by Henry James: She was simply the American pretty girl, whom he had seen a thousand times.
It was a numerous sisterhood, pervaded by a strong family likeness.
This young lady had charming eyes (of the color of Gordon's cravats),
which looked everywhere at once and yet found time to linger in some places,
where Longueville's own eyes frequently met them. She had soft brown hair,
with a silky-golden thread in it, beautifully arranged and crowned by a smart
little hat that savoured of Paris. She had also a slender little figure,
neatly rounded, and delicate, narrow hands, prettily gloved. She moved
about a great deal in her place, twisted her little flexible body and tossed
her head, fingered her hair and examined the ornaments of her dress. She had
a great deal of conversation, Longueville speedily learned, and she expressed
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Alexander's Bridge by Willa Cather: I like. You haven't got anything that doesn't
belong. Seems to me it looks particularly
well to-night. And you have so many flowers.
I like these little yellow irises."
"Rooms always look better by lamplight
--in London, at least. Though Marie is clean
--really clean, as the French are. Why do
you look at the flowers so critically? Marie
got them all fresh in Covent Garden market
yesterday morning."
"I'm glad," said Alexander simply.
Alexander's Bridge |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from La Grande Breteche by Honore de Balzac: the reason--perhaps quite commonplace--of this neglect, I should have
lost the unwritten poetry which intoxicated me. To me this refuge
represented the most various phases of human life, shadowed by
misfortune; sometimes the peace of the graveyard without the dead, who
speak in the language of epitaphs; one day I saw in it the home of
lepers; another, the house of the Atridae; but, above all, I found
there provincial life, with its contemplative ideas, its hour-glass
existence. I often wept there, I never laughed.
"More than once I felt involuntary terrors as I heard overhead the
dull hum of the wings of some hurrying wood-pigeon. The earth is dank;
you must be on the watch for lizards, vipers, and frogs, wandering
La Grande Breteche |
