| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen: laughing, and sipping her coffee in a commonplace drawing-room
with commonplace people. But you know what you are saying."
"I do; I have not allowed myself to be led by surmises
or fancies. It was with no thought of finding Helen Vaughan
that I searched for Mrs. Beaumont in the dark waters of the
life of London, but such has been the issue."
"You must have been in strange places, Villiers."
"Yes, I have been in very strange places. It would
have been useless, you know, to go to Ashley Street, and ask
Mrs. Beaumont to give me a short sketch of her previous
history. No; assuming, as I had to assume, that her record was
The Great God Pan |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Emma McChesney & Co. by Edna Ferber: "Lily Bernstein," Sophy made prompt answer.
"Send her in to us, will you? And give her credit for lost time
when she comes back to the shop."
Sophy, with a last beamingly good-natured smile, withdrew. Five
minutes later, when Lily Bernstein entered the office, Sophy
qualified as a judge of beauty. Lily Bernstein was a tiger-
lily--all browns and golds and creams, all graciousness and
warmth and lovely curves. As she came into the room, Gladys
Orton-Wells seemed as bloodless and pale and ineffectual as a
white moth beside a gorgeous tawny butterfly.
Emma presented the girl as formally as she had Sophy Kumpf. And
Emma McChesney & Co. |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: the natures that are tried there. Marie looked at the clock. "Six
hours to live," she murmured.
"Can I have slept?" she cried toward morning, wakening with one of
those sudden movements which rouse us when we have made ourselves a
promise to wake at a certain hour. "Yes, I have slept," she thought,
seeing by the light of the candles that the hands of the clock were
pointing to two in the morning. She turned and looked at the sleeping
marquis, lying like a child with his head on one hand, the other
clasping his wife's hand, his lips half smiling as though he had
fallen asleep while she kissed him.
"Ah!" she whispered to herself, "he sleeps like an infant; he does not
The Chouans |
