| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: shape of the late lamented de Marsay; and therefore she could not but
feel a limitless affection for a young provincial's articles of faith.
Her tenderness reacted upon Rastignac. So by the time that Nucingen
had put his wife's friend into the harness in which the exploiter
always gets the exploited, he had reached the precise juncture when he
(the Baron) meditated a third suspension of payment. To Rastignac he
confided his position; he pointed out to Rastignac a means of making
'reparation.' As a consequence of his intimacy, he was expected to
play the part of confederate. The Baron judged it unsafe to
communicate the whole of his plot to his conjugal collaborator.
Rastignac quite believed in impending disaster; and the Baron allowed
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Camille by Alexandre Dumas: the terms of these letters brought tears to my eyes. He had
imagined that by closing his purse to Marguerite, he would bring
her back to him; but when he had perceived the uselessness of
these means, he could hold out no longer; he wrote and asked that
he might see her again, as before, no matter on what conditions.
I read these urgent and repeated letters, and tore them in
pieces, without telling Marguerite what they contained and
without advising her to see the old man again, though I was half
inclined to, so much did I pity him, but I was afraid lest, if I
so advised her she should think that I wished the duke, not
merely to come and see her again, but to take over the expenses
Camille |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Philosophy 4 by Owen Wister: early hour to assume the features of a celebration. One silver-fizz
before dinner is nothing; but dinner did not come at once, and the boys
were thirsty. The hair of Mrs. Diggs had caught Billy's eye again
immediately upon her entrance to inform them that the meal was ready;
and whenever she reentered with a new course from the kitchen, Billy's
eye wandered back to it, although Mr. Diggs had become full of anecdotes
about the Civil War. It was partly Grecian: a knot stood out behind to
a considerable distance. But this was not the whole plan. From front to
back ran a parting, clear and severe, and curls fell from this to the
temples in a manner called, I believe, by the enlightened, a l'Anne
d'Autriche. The color was gray, to be sure; but this propriety did not
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