| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Outlaw of Torn by Edgar Rice Burroughs: it looked at an angle upon other windows in the old
castle where lights were beginning to show. He saw
men-at-arms moving about, and once he thought he
caught a glimpse of a woman's figure, but he was not
sure.
He wondered what had become of Joan de Tany and
Mary de Stutevill. He hoped that they had escaped,
and yet--no, Joan certainly had not, for now he dis-
tinctly remembered that his eyes had met hers for an
instant just before the blow fell upon him, and he
thought of the faith and confidence that he had read in
 The Outlaw of Torn |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Michael Strogoff by Jules Verne: pect any traveler, he was carried off to explain himself at
the police station, and in the meantime the train went on its
way, no person troubling himself about the unfortunate
one left behind.
With the Russian police, which is very arbitrary, it is
absolutely useless to argue. Military rank is conferred on
its employees, and they act in military fashion. How can
anyone, moreover, help obeying, unhesitatingly, orders
which emanate from a monarch who has the right to
employ this formula at the head of his ukase: "We, by
the grace of God, Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: contract to a couple of sheets to-morrow (a tiresome practice);
instead of dragging along over the ruts and dodging behind hedges--it
would be better to give way to the adorable passion that Jean-Jacques
Rousseau envied, to fall frankly in love with a girl like Isaure, with
a view to making her my wife, if upon exchange of sentiments our
hearts respond to each other; to be Werther, in short, with a happy
ending.'
" 'Which is a common weakness,' returned Rastignac without laughing.
'Possibly in your place I might plunge into the unspeakable delights
of that ascetic course; it possesses the merits of novelty and
originality, and it is not very expensive. Your Monna Lisa is sweet,
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