| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James: that he never missed one for kindness. There was almost rapture in
hearing it proposed to me to prepare for THE MIDDLE, the organ of
our lucubrations, so called from the position in the week of its
day of appearance, an article for which he had made himself
responsible and of which, tied up with a stout string, he laid on
my table the subject. I pounced upon my opportunity - that is on
the first volume of it - and paid scant attention to my friend's
explanation of his appeal. What explanation could be more to the
point than my obvious fitness for the task? I had written on Hugh
Vereker, but never a word in THE MIDDLE, where my dealings were
mainly with the ladies and the minor poets. This was his new
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Illustrious Gaudissart by Honore de Balzac: On the ground floor was a large wainscoted salon, on either side of
which opened the bedroom of the good-man and that of his wife. The
salon was entered from an ante-chamber, which served as the dining-
room and communicated with the kitchen. This lower door, which was
wholly without the external charm usually seen even in the humblest
dwellings in Touraine, was covered by a mansard story, reached by a
stairway built on the outside of the house against the gable end and
protected by a shed-roof. A little garden, full of marigolds,
syringas, and elder-bushes, separated the house from the fields; and
all around the courtyard were detached buildings which were used in
the vintage season for the various processes of making wine.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from An Episode Under the Terror by Honore de Balzac: feeble light of the tallow dip an indescribable curiosity appeared in
the three anxious faces. Mademoiselle de Langeais opened the box, and
found a very fine lawn handkerchief, soiled with sweat; darker stains
appeared as they unfolded it.
"That is blood!" exclaimed the priest.
"It is marked with a royal crown!" cried Sister Agathe.
The women, aghast, allowed the precious relic to fall. For their
simple souls the mystery that hung about the stranger grew
inexplicable; as for the priest, from that day forth he did not even
try to understand it.
Before very long the prisoners knew that, in spite of the Terror, some
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