| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: strengthened therein? I did not have time to enter upon the necessary
explanations to Monsieur de l'Estorade, neither have I the leisure to
write them to you now. If I speak of the incident it is for the
purpose of telling you of an observation I think I have made, into the
truth of which I want you to examine after you get here. It is this:--
I have an idea that it would not be agreeable to Monsieur de
l'Estorade to see me successful in my electoral campaign. He never
gave much approbation to the plan; in fact he tried to dissuade me,
but always from the point of view of my own interests. But to-day,
when he finds that the plan has taken shape, and is actually discussed
in the ministerial salon, my gentleman turns bitter, and he seems to
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Glasses by Henry James: recall the impulse that made me forbear. It operated suddenly from
within while he hung about the door and in spite of the diffident
appeal that blinked in his gentle grin. If he was smitten with
Flora's ghost what mightn't be the direct force of the luminary
that could cast such a shadow? This source of radiance, flooding
my poor place, might very well happen to be present the next time
he should turn up. The idea was sharp within me that there were
relations and complications it was no mission of mine to bring
about. If they were to develop they should develop in their very
own sense.
Let me say at once that they did develop and that I perhaps after
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: He cast upon us one of the most lamentable glances that I ever saw as
he answered,--
"If I had a wife I must abandon my father; I could not feed him and a
wife and children too."
"Well, my poor lad, why don't you try to earn more at the salt
marshes, or by carrying the salt to the harbor?"
"Ah, monsieur, I couldn't do that work three months. I am not strong
enough, and if I died my father would have to beg. I am forced to take
a business which only needs a little knack and a great deal of
patience."
"But how can two persons live on twelve sous a day?"
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