| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart: something about it."
"The devil he does!" Halsey's eyes were fairly starting from his
head. "I beg your pardon, Aunt Ray, but--the fellow's a
lunatic."
"Tell me everything, won't you, Halsey?" I begged. "Tell me
where you went that night, or rather morning, and why you went as
you did. This has been a terrible forty-eight hours for all of
us."
He stood staring at me, and I could see the horror of the
situation dawning in his face.
"I can't tell you where I went, Aunt Ray," he said, after a
The Circular Staircase |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Little Britain by Washington Irving: in attendance on the Lady Mayoress, at her grand annual ball,
on which occasion she wore three towering ostrich feathers on
her head. The family never got over it; they were immediately
smitten with a passion for high life; set up a one-horse
carriage,
put a bit of gold lace round the errand boy's hat, and have been
the talk and detestation of the whole neighborhood ever since.
They could no longer be induced to play at Pope-Joan or blind-
man's-buff; they could endure no dances but quadrilles, which
nobody had ever heard of in Little Britain; and they took to
reading novels, talking bad French, and playing upon the piano.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The American by Henry James: her brother. The young man, on his side, had made a rapid inspection
of Newman's person. He had taken the card and was about to enter
the house with it when another figure appeared on the threshold--
an older man, of a fine presence, wearing evening dress.
He looked hard at Newman, and Newman looked at him. "Madame de Cintre,"
the younger man repeated, as an introduction of the visitor.
The other took the card from his hand, read it in a rapid glance,
looked again at Newman from head to foot, hesitated a moment,
and then said, gravely but urbanely, "Madame de Cintre is not at home."
The younger man made a gesture, and then, turning to Newman,
"I am very sorry, sir," he said.
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