| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Middlemarch by George Eliot: hands in his pockets and stalking away from the hearth; "it's not
a question of liking. Of course, I don't like it; it's the only
thing I can do." He wheeled round there, and turned towards her.
"I should have thought there were many other means than that,"
said Rosamond. "Let us have a sale and leave Middlemarch altogether."
"To do what? What is the use of my leaving my work in Middlemarch
to go where I have none? We should be just as penniless elsewhere
as we are here," said Lydgate still more angrily.
"If we are to be in that position it will be entirely your
own doing, Tertius," said Rosamond, turning round to speak
with the fullest conviction. "You will not behave as you ought
Middlemarch |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: of La Hautoy when divided between the mother and daughter, would be a
mere trifle in comparison with the expenses into which a husband would
be led by the personal advantages of so brilliant a creature.
As soon as all these facts came to the ears of little Polydore de la
Baudraye--for they were the talk of every circle in the Department of
the Cher--he went to Bourges just when Madame Piedefer, a devotee at
high services, had almost made up her own mind and her daughter's to
take the first comer with well-lined pockets--the first /chien
coiffe/, as they say in Le Berry. And if the Cardinal was delighted to
receive Monsieur de la Baudraye, Monsieur de la Baudraye was even
better pleased to receive a wife from the hands of the Cardinal. The
The Muse of the Department |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas: flower-pot.
Well, it was then quite evident she was following the
instructions of Cornelius, who was afraid of the bulb being
killed by frost.
When the sun became too hot, Rosa likewise took in the pot
from eleven in the morning until two in the afternoon.
Another proof: Cornelius was afraid lest the soil should
become too dry.
But when the first leaves peeped out of the earth Boxtel was
fully convinced; and his telescope left him no longer in any
uncertainty before they had grown one inch in height.
The Black Tulip |
