| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Deserted Woman by Honore de Balzac: "With Mme. de Champignelles?" exclaimed the dowager with something
like astonishment in her manner.
"With my wife," calmly assented the noble. "Mme. de Beauseant is
descended from the House of Burgundy, on the spindle side, 'tis true,
but the name atones for everything. My wife is very much attached to
the Vicomtesse, and the poor lady has lived alone for such a long
while, that----"
The Marquis de Champignelles looked round about him while he spoke
with an air of cool unconcern, so that it was almost impossible to
guess whether he made a concession to Mme. de Beauseant's misfortunes,
or paid homage to her noble birth; whether he felt flattered to
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Emma McChesney & Co. by Edna Ferber: and one hand went to his shoulder as she stood looking down at
him, her face all sympathy and contrition and sorrow.
"And you didn't write me! You didn't even tell me, last
night!"
"I didn't want to distress you. I knew you were having a
hard-enough pull down there without additional worries. It
happened very suddenly while I was out on the road. I got the
wire in Peoria. She died very suddenly and quite painlessly.
Her companion, Miss Tate, was with her. She had never been
herself since Dad's death."
"And you----"
Emma McChesney & Co. |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Arrow of Gold by Joseph Conrad: sit there and rave and abuse me till I would burst into a crazy
laugh in my hole; and then I could see him through the leaves
rolling on the ground and biting his fists with rage. Didn't he
hate me! At the same time I was often terrified. I am convinced
now that if I had started crying he would have rushed in and
perhaps strangled me there. Then as the sun was about to set he
would make me swear that I would marry him when I was grown up.
'Swear, you little wretched beggar,' he would yell to me. And I
would swear. I was hungry, and I didn't want to be made black and
blue all over with stones. Oh, I swore ever so many times to be
his wife. Thirty times a month for two months. I couldn't help
The Arrow of Gold |
