| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Collection of Antiquities by Honore de Balzac: anecdotes of the reign of His Majesty Louis XV.; he glorified the
manners and customs of the year 1750; he told of the orgies in petites
maisons, the follies of courtesans, the capital tricks played on
creditors, the manners, in short, which furnished forth Dancourt's
comedies and Beaumarchais' epigrams. And unfortunately, the corruption
lurking beneath the utmost polish tricked itself out in Voltairean
wit. If the Chevalier went rather too far at times, he always added as
a corrective that a man must always behave himself like a gentleman.
Of all this discourse, Victurnien comprehended just so much as
flattered his passions. From the first he saw his old father laughing
with the Chevalier. The two elderly men considered that the pride of a
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Man in Lower Ten by Mary Roberts Rinehart: without the stand. I wandered through several rooms, all closed
and dismantled, before I found a small lavatory opening off a
billiard room. The cat lapped steadily, and I filled a glass to
take back with me. The candle flickered in a sickly fashion that
threatened to leave me there lost in the wanderings of the many
hallways, and from somewhere there came an occasional violent puff
of wind. The cat stuck by my feet, with the hair on its back raised
menacingly. I don't like cats; there is something psychic about
them.
Hotchkiss was still asleep when I got back to the big room. I moved
his boots back from the fire, and trimmed the candle. Then, with
The Man in Lower Ten |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Gentle Grafter by O. Henry: Way, and get home in time to see the chickens go to roost forty-eight
hours later. Oh, the pristine Hubbard squasherino of the cave-dwelling
period is getting geared up some for the annual meeting of the Don't-
Blow-Out-the-Gas Association, don't you think, Mr. Bunk?'
"'I seem to perceive,' says I, 'a kind of hiatus in the agrarian
traditions in which heretofore, I have reposed confidence.'
"'Sure, Bunk,' says he. 'The yellow primrose on the river's brim is
getting to look to us Reubs like a holiday edition de luxe of the
Language of Flowers with deckle edges and frontispiece.'
"Just then the telephone calls him again.
"'Hello, hello!' says he. 'Oh, that's Perkins, at Milldale. I told you
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