| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Catherine de Medici by Honore de Balzac: here that nothing but our great distress would have brought me. No one
but me was willing to risk them."
"The lad is new to his business," said Mary Stuart, smiling.
It may not be useless, for the understanding of this trifling, but
very important scene, to remark that a surcoat was, as the name
implies (/sur cotte/), a species of close-fitting spencer which women
wore over their bodies and down to their thighs, defining the figure.
This garment protected the back, chest, and throat from cold. These
surcoats were lined with fur, a band of which, wide or narrow as the
case might be, bordered the outer material. Mary Stuart, as she tried
the garment on, looked at herself in a large Venetian mirror to see
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Hellenica by Xenophon: discover how many they were, and how large a garrison they would
further require, they ordered the townsfolk to enter their names. As
each man did so he had to retire by a postern leading to the sea. But
on the sea-beach this side there were lines of cavalry drawn up in
waiting, and as each man appeared he was handcuffed by the satellites
of the Thirty. When all had so been seized and secured, they gave
orders to Lysimachus, the commander of the cavalry, to take them off
to the city and deliver them over to the Eleven. Next day they
summoned the heavy armed who were on the list, and the rest of the
Knights[5] to the Odeum, and Critias rose and addressed them. He said:
"Sirs, the constitution, the lines of which we are laying down, is a
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott: but much preferred to go alone, if he went at all.
The old gentleman knew that perfectly well, and particularly
desired to prevent it, for the mood in which he found his
grandson assured him that it would not be wise to leave him to
his own devices. So, stifling a natural regret at the thought
of the home comforts he would leave behind him, he said stoutly,
Bless your soul, I'm not superannuated yet. I quite enjoy the
idea. It will do me good, and my old bones won't suffer, for
traveling nowadays is almost as easy as sitting in a chair."
A restless movement from Laurie suggested that his chair
was not easy, or that he did not like the plan, and made the
Little Women |
