| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Man in Lower Ten by Mary Roberts Rinehart: who, in these hygienic days, finding no cobwebs to entangle him, is
caught in a sheet of fly paper, finds himself more and more mired,
and is finally quiet with the sticky stillness of despair?
Well, I was the fly. I had seen too much of circumstantial evidence
to have any belief that the establishing of my identity would weigh
much against the other incriminating details. It meant imprisonment
and trial, probably, with all the notoriety and loss of practice
they would entail. A man thinks quickly at a time like that. All
the probable consequences of the finding of that pocket-book flashed
through my mind as I extended my hand to take it. Then I drew my
arm back.
The Man in Lower Ten |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: tradesman's daughter as well. I should very much like to know whether
I am a second shift, and whether marriage is a matter of money with
him.' The fact was that Desroches, deep as he was, could not make out
du Tillet, and was afraid that he might marry Malvina. So the fellow
had secured his retreat. His position was intolerable, he was scarcely
paying his expenses and interest on the debt. Women understand nothing
of these things; for them, love is always a millionaire."
"But since neither du Tillet nor Desroches married her; just explain
Ferdinand's motive," said Finot.
"Motive?" repeated Bixiou; "why, this. General Rule: A girl that has
once given away her slipper, even if she refused it for ten years, is
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Moby Dick by Herman Melville: harpoon burned there like a serpent's tongue, Starbuck grasped Ahab
by the arm--"God, God is against thee, old man; forbear! 'tis an
ill voyage! ill begun, ill continued; let me square the yards, while
we may, old man, and make a fair wind of it homewards, to go on a
better voyage than this."
Overhearing Starbuck, the panic-stricken crew instantly ran to the
braces--though not a sail was left aloft. For the moment all the
aghast mate's thoughts seemed theirs; they raised a half mutinous
cry. But dashing the rattling lightning links to the deck, and
snatching the burning harpoon, Ahab waved it like a torch among them;
swearing to transfix with it the first sailor that but cast loose a
Moby Dick |
