| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Alkahest by Honore de Balzac: Stone. She ought, so her kind friends added, to think of her children,
and her own future; it was criminal not to use her influence to draw
Monsieur Claes from the fatal path on which he had entered.
Though Madame Claes, with the tone and manner of a great lady,
silenced these absurd speeches, she was inwardly terrified in spite of
her apparent confidence, and she resolved to break through her present
system of silence and resignation. She brought about one of those
little scenes in which husband and wife are on an equal footing; less
timid at such a moment, she dared to ask Balthazar the reason for his
change, the motive of his constant seclusion. The Flemish husband
frowned, and replied:--
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Flame and Shadow by Sara Teasdale: I must fight always and die fighting
With fear an unhealing wound in my breast.
Dust
When I went to look at what had long been hidden,
A jewel laid long ago in a secret place,
I trembled, for I thought to see its dark deep fire --
But only a pinch of dust blew up in my face.
I almost gave my life long ago for a thing
That has gone to dust now, stinging my eyes --
It is strange how often a heart must be broken
Before the years can make it wise.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Case of the Golden Bullet by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: from a wing of the castle. The peddler looked so frozen and yet so
venerable that the youth had not the heart to turn him away.
Possibly he was glad of a little diversion for his own sake.
"Who do you want to see?" he asked.
"I want to speak to the maid, the one who attended your dead
mistress."
"Oh, then you know -?"
"I know of the misfortune that has happened here."
"And you think that Nanette might have something to sell to you?"
"Yes, that's it; that's why I came. For I don't suppose there's
much chance for any business with my cigar holders and other
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