| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Man of Business by Honore de Balzac: no ill of the poor fellow; he was nabbed; Couture allowed them to
squeeze his cash-box; who would ever have thought it of him?"
"At all events, Cerizet was a low sort of fellow, a good deal damaged
by low debauchery. Now for the duel I spoke about. Never did two
tradesmen of the worst type, with the worst manners, the lowest pair
of villains imaginable, go into partnership in a dirtier business.
Their stock-in-trade consisted of the peculiar idiom of the man about
town, the audacity of poverty, the cunning that comes of experience,
and a special knowledge of Parisian capitalists, their origin,
connections, acquaintances, and intrinsic value. This partnership of
two 'dabblers' (let the Stock Exchange term pass, for it is the only
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Camille by Alexandre Dumas: going to Paris, after not leaving me for four months. I was
afraid that something might happen to you, or that you were
perhaps going to see another woman."
"Child!"
"Now I am relieved. I know what you have done, but I don't yet
know what you have been told."
I showed Marguerite my father's letters.
"That is not what I am asking you about. What I want to know is
why you went to see Prudence."
"To see her."
"That's a lie, my friend."
Camille |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Europeans by Henry James: Mr. Wentworth stared a moment, and remembered that queer proposition
of Felix's. For a moment he did not know whether it was not to be
wished that Clifford, after all, might have gone to Boston.
"The Baroness has not honored us tonight," he said.
"She has not come over for three days."
"Is she ill?" Acton asked.
"No; I have been to see her."
"What is the matter with her?"
"Well," said Mr. Wentworth, "I infer she has tired of us."
Acton pretended to sit down, but he was restless; he found it
impossible to talk with Mr. Wentworth. At the end of ten minutes
|
