| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: master stayed, like a timid suitor, by a word from her, within the
limits that she chooses?
You asked me to describe him; but, Renee, it is not possible to make a
portrait of the man we love. How could the heart be kept out of the
work? Besides, to be frank between ourselves, we may admit that one of
the dire effects of civilization on our manners is to make of man in
society a being so utterly different from the natural man of strong
feeling, that sometimes not a single point of likeness can be found
between these two aspects of the same person. The man who falls into
the most graceful operatic poses, as he pours sweet nothings into your
ear by the fire at night, may be entirely destitute of those more
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Main Street by Sinclair Lewis: Like an older brother he kissed her good-night in the midst
of the company.
"He's terribly nice," said her housemates, and waited for
confidences. They got none, nor did her own heart. She could
find nothing definite to agonize about. She felt that she was
no longer analyzing and controlling forces, but swept on by
them.
He came to the flat for breakfast, and washed the dishes.
That was her only occasion for spite. Back home he never
thought of washing dishes!
She took him to the obvious "sights"--the Treasury, the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: girls' high-schools, the teachers of the seminary, the government
officials, all received a copy. Byelikov received one, too. The
caricature made a very painful impression on him.
"We went out together; it was the first of May, a Sunday, and all
of us, the boys and the teachers, had agreed to meet at the
high-school and then to go for a walk together to a wood beyond
the town. We set off, and he was green in the face and gloomier
than a storm-cloud.
'What wicked, ill-natured people there are!' he said, and his
lips quivered.
"I felt really sorry for him. We were walking along, and all of a
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