| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Betty Zane by Zane Grey: of the bluff a mile or more and afforded a fine unobstructed view of the
river. Betty had either not heard of the Captain's order, that no one was to
leave the fort, or she had disregarded it altogether; probably the latter, as
she generally did what suited her fancy.
"Release my pony's head!" she cried, her face flushing, as she gave a jerk to
the reins. "How dare you? What right have you to detain me?"
The expression Betty saw on Clarke's face was not new to her, for she
remembered having seen it on the faces of young gentlemen whom she had met at
her aunt's house in Philadelphia. It was the slight, provoking smile of the
man familiar with the various moods of young women, the expression of an
amused contempt for their imperiousness. But it was not that which angered
Betty Zane |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Massimilla Doni by Honore de Balzac: glowing countenance. Her hair, which had fallen over her shoulders,
her Magdalen-like attitude, the disorder of her half-unfastened dress,
--the whole picture had been composed by the devil, who, as is well
known, is a fine colorist.
The Prince put his arm round the weeping girl, who slipped from him
like a snake, and clung to one foot, pressing it to her beautiful
bosom.
"Will you explain to me," said he, shaking his foot to free it from
her embrace, "how you happen to be in my palazzo? How the impoverished
Emilio Memmi--"
"Emilio Memmi!" cried Tinti, rising. "You said you were a Prince."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Beast in the Jungle by Henry James: the right--?"
"Don't KNOW--when you needn't," she mercifully urged. "You
needn't--for we shouldn't."
"Shouldn't?" If he could but know what she meant!
"No--it's too much."
"Too much?" he still asked but with a mystification that was the
next moment of a sudden to give way. Her words, if they meant
something, affected him in this light--the light also of her wasted
face--as meaning ALL, and the sense of what knowledge had been for
herself came over him with a rush which broke through into a
question. "Is it of that then you're dying?"
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