| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: have a good laugh at their expense to-night.'
"There was something frightful about the old man's ecstasy. It was the
one occasion when he opened his heart to me; and that flash of joy,
swift though it was, will never be effaced from my memory.
" 'Favor me so far as to stay here,' he added. 'I am armed, and a sure
shot. I have gone tiger-hunting, and fought on the deck when there was
nothing for it but to win or die; but I don't care to trust yonder
elegant scoundrel.'
"He sat down again in his armchair before his bureau, and his face
grew pale and impassive as before.
" 'Ah!' he continued, turning to me, 'you will see that lovely
Gobseck |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Wyoming by William MacLeod Raine: Shoshone country, of the deadly war waging between the cattle and
sheep industries.
"Are there any sheep near the Lazy D ranch?" she asked, intensely
interested in Soapy's tale of how cattle and sheep could no more
be got to mix than oil and water.
For an instant nobody answered her question; then Soapy replied,
with what seemed elaborate carelessness:
"Ned Bannister runs a bunch of about twelve thousand not more'n
fifteen or twenty miles from your place."
"And you say they are spoiling the range?"
"They're ce'tainly spoiling it for cows."
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Prufrock/Other Observations by T. S. Eliot: Till human voices wake us, and we drown.
Portrait of a Lady
Thou hast committed--
Fornication: but that was in another country,
And besides, the wench is dead.
The Jew Of Malta
I
Among the smoke and fog of a December afternoon
You have the scene arrange itself--as it will seem to do--
With "I have saved this afternoon for you";
And four wax candles in the darkened room,
Prufrock/Other Observations |
