| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The American by Henry James: novels on the other, and a large piece of tapestry depending
from her lap, presented an expansive and imposing front;
but her aspect was in the highest degree gracious, and there was
nothing in her manner to check the effusion of his confidence.
She talked to him about flowers and books, getting launched
with marvelous promptitude; about the theatres, about the peculiar
institutions of his native country, about the humidity of Paris
about the pretty complexions of the American ladies, about his
impressions of France and his opinion of its female inhabitants.
All this was a brilliant monologue on the part of the duchess, who,
like many of her country-women, was a person of an affirmative rather
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: green of the sea,--is grand without being savage; it is immense, yet
not a desert; it is monotonous, but it does not weary; it has only
three elements, and yet it is varied."
"Women alone know how to render such impressions," I said. "You would
be the despair of a poet, dear soul that I divine so well!"
"The extreme heat of mid-day casts into those three expressions of the
infinite an all-powerful color," said Pauline, smiling. "I can here
conceive the poesy and the passion of the East."
"And I can perceive its despair."
"Yes," she said, "this dune is a cloister,--a sublime cloister."
We now heard the hurried steps of our guide; he had put on his Sunday
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Lamentable Tragedy of Locrine and Mucedorus by William Shakespeare: MUCEDORUS.
Yes, princely born: my father is a king,
My mother Queen, and of Valentia both.
KING.
What, Mucedorus! welcome to our court.
What cause hadst thou to come to me disguised?
MUCEDORUS.
No cause to fear; I caused no offence
But this:
Desiring thy daughter's virtues for to see
Disguised my self from out my father's court.
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