| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Letters from England by Elizabeth Davis Bancroft: the most brilliant and attractive in Paris. Since he left, a note
came from Mr. Hallam, the contents of which pleased me as they will
you. It announced that Mr. Bancroft was chosen an Honorary Member
of the Society of Antiquaries, of which Lord Mahon is president,
Hallam, vice-president. Hallam says the society is very old and
that he is the first citizen of the United States upon whom it has
been conferred, but that he will not long possess it exclusively, as
his "highly distinguished countryman, Mr. Prescott, has also been
proposed."
LETTER: To W.D.B. and A.B.
Tuesday
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Pierre Grassou by Honore de Balzac: some day for his own!
He was received by the Vervelles with an enthusiasm, a joy, a
kindliness, a frank bourgeois absurdity which confounded him. It was
indeed a day of triumph. The prospective son-in-law was marched about
the grounds on the nankeen-colored paths, all raked as they should be
for the steps of so great a man. The trees themselves looked brushed
and combed, and the lawns had just been mown. The pure country air
wafted to the nostrils a most enticing smell of cooking. All things
about the mansion seemed to say:
"We have a great artist among us."
Little old Vervelle himself rolled like an apple through his park, the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Europeans by Henry James: arm-chair, very few visitors, even of the soberest local type,
she had been obliged to limit the number of her interviews
with a lady whose costume and manner recalled to her imagination--
Mrs. Acton's imagination was a marvel--all that she had ever
read of the most stirring historical periods. But she had sent
the Baroness a great many quaintly-worded messages and a great
many nosegays from her garden and baskets of beautiful fruit.
Felix had eaten the fruit, and the Baroness had arranged
the flowers and returned the baskets and the messages.
On the day that followed that rainy Sunday of which
mention has been made, Eugenia determined to go and pay
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