| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Another Study of Woman by Honore de Balzac: silence, the seriousness and the banter, the wit and the obtuseness,
the diplomacy and the ignorance which make up the perfect lady."
"And where, in accordance with the sketch you have drawn," said
Mademoiselle des Touches to Emile Blondet, "would you class the female
author? Is she a perfect lady, a woman /comme il faut/?"
"When she has no genius, she is a woman /comme il n'en faut pas/,"
Blondet replied, emphasizing the words with a stolen glance, which
might make them seem praise frankly addressed to Camille Maupin. "This
epigram is not mine, but Napoleon's," he added.
"You need not owe Napoleon any grudge on that score," said Canalis,
with an emphatic tone and gesture. "It was one of his weaknesses to be
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from An Episode Under the Terror by Honore de Balzac: That bit of gold was so plainly the last. Her hands shook a little as
she held it out, looking at it sadly but ungrudgingly, as one who
knows the full extent of the sacrifice. Hunger and penury had carved
lines as easy to read in her face as the traces of asceticism and
fear. There were vestiges of bygone splendor in her clothes. She was
dressed in threadbare silk, a neat but well-worn mantle, and daintily
mended lace,--in the rags of former grandeur, in short. The shopkeeper
and his wife, drawn two ways by pity and self-interest, began by
lulling their consciences with words.
"You seem very poorly, citoyenne----"
"Perhaps madame might like to take something," the wife broke in.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Where There's A Will by Mary Roberts Rinehart: is here, and that I can spoil the little game by calling the
extra ace, if I want to."
"You're forgetting one thing," Mrs. Sam said, facing her for the
first time, "if you call the game, my brother is worth exactly
what clothes he happens to be wearing at the moment and nothing
else. He hasn't a penny of his own."
"I don't believe it," she sniffed. "Look at the things he gave
me!"
"Yes. I've already had the bills," said Mr. Sam.
She whirled and looked at him, and then she threw back her head
and laughed.
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