| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tono Bungay by H. G. Wells: I should put myself into the same picture. Best setting for us,
I think, would be the Beckenham snuggery, because there we
worked hardest. It would be the lamplit room of the early
nineties, and the clock upon the mantel would indicate midnight
or later. We would be sitting on either side of the fire, I with
a pipe, my uncle with a cigar or cigarette. There would be
glasses standing inside the brass fender. Our expressions would
be very grave. My uncle used to sit right back in his armchair;
his toes always turned in when he was sitting down and his legs
had a way of looking curved, as though they hadn't bones or
joints but were stuffed with sawdust.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Polly of the Circus by Margaret Mayo: the little brown Quakerish dress which she had chosen to wear so
much since her return from the parsonage.
"I guess I won't be makin' no mistake this time," he said, and he
placed her hand in that of the parson.
"Good-bye, Muvver Jim," faltered Polly.
He stooped and touched her forehead with his lips. A mother's
spirit breathed through his kiss.
"I'm glad it's like this," he said, then turned away and followed
the long, dotted line of winding lights disappearing slowly over
the hill.
Her eyes travelled after him.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart: "There's a ladder up the clothes chute, Miss Innes," she said.
"It's up that tight I can't move it, and I didn't like to ask for
help until I spoke to you."
It was useless to dissemble; Mary Anne knew now as well as I did
that the ladder had no business to be there. I did the best I
could, however. I put her on the defensive at once.
"Then you didn't lock the laundry last night?"
"I locked it tight, and put the key in the kitchen on its nail."
"Very well, then you forgot a window."
Mary Anne hesitated.
"Yes'm," she said at last. "I thought I locked them all, but
The Circular Staircase |
