| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Rezanov by Gertrude Atherton: Concha, after her father left her, sat for a long
while in an attitude of such complete repose that
Sturgis, watching her miserably from the veranda,
remembered the consolations of his sketch book;
and he was able to counterfeit the graceful, proud
figure, under the wall and roses, before she stirred.
Concha had sent her father away deeply puzzled.
When, after embracing her with unusual emotion,
he had informed her of his consent to her marriage,
she had received the news as a matter of course,
her hopes and desires having mounted too high to
 Rezanov |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Astoria by Washington Irving: He went to the shore to embark, but found all the canoes hauled
up on the beach and rigorously tabooed, or interdicted. He would
have launched one himself, but was informed by Tamaahmaah that if
he presumed to do so he would be put to death.
Young was obliged to submit, and remained all day in great
perplexity to account for this mysterious taboo, and fearful that
some hostility was intended. In the evening he learned the cause
of it, and his uneasiness was increased. It appeared that the
vindictive act of Captain Metcalf had recoiled upon his own head.
The schooner Fair American, commanded by his son, following in
his track, had fallen into the hands of the natives to the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Simple Soul by Gustave Flaubert: following week, Theodore obtained meetings.
They met in yards, behind walls or under isolated trees. She was not
ignorant, as girls of well-to-do families are--for the animals had
instructed her;--but her reason and her instinct of honour kept her
from falling. Her resistance exasperated Theodore's love and so in
order to satisfy it (or perchance ingenuously), he offered to marry
her. She would not believe him at first, so he made solemn promises.
But, in a short time he mentioned a difficulty; the previous year, his
parents had purchased a substitute for him; but any day he might be
drafted and the prospect of serving in the army alarmed him greatly.
To Felicite his cowardice appeared a proof of his love for her, and
 A Simple Soul |