| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Street of Seven Stars by Mary Roberts Rinehart: more honest for concealing nothing. But--and forgive me this, it
insists on coming up in my mind--were you honest, really? You
told me, and it took courage, but wasn't it partly fear? What
motive is unmixed? Honesty--and fear, Walter. You were preparing
against a contingency, although you may not admit this to
yourself.
"I am not passing judgment on you. God forbid that I should! I am
only trying to show you what is in my mind, and that this break
is final. The revolt is in myself, against something sordid and
horrible which I will not take into my life. And for that reason
time will make no difference.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Some Reminiscences by Joseph Conrad: that it might have been one of Trollope's political novels. And
I remember, too, the character of the day. It was an autumn day
with an opaline atmosphere, a veiled, semi-opaque, lustrous day,
with fiery points and flashes of red sunlight on the roofs and
windows opposite, while the trees of the square with all their
leaves gone were like tracings of indian ink on a sheet of tissue
paper. It was one of those London days that have the charm of
mysterious amenity, of fascinating softness. The effect of
opaline mist was often repeated at Bessborough Gardens on account
of the nearness to the river.
There is no reason why I should remember that effect more on that
Some Reminiscences |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Sir John Mandeville: bows or three, and of arrows great plenty, and a great axe. And
the gentles have short spears and large and full trenchant on that
one side. And they have plates and helms made of quyrboylle, and
their horses covertures of the same. And whoso fleeth from the
battle they slay him. And when they hold any siege about castle or
town that is walled and defensible, they behote to them that be
within to do all the profit and good, that it is marvel to hear;
and they grant also to them that be within all that they will ask
them. And after that they be yielden, anon they slay them all; and
cut off their ears and souse them in vinegar, and thereof they make
great service for lords. All their lust and all their imagination
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