| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: which made her singing irresistibly charming. Clever, and intimate
with every branch of literature, she might have made folks believe
that, as Mascarille says, people of quality come into the world
knowing everything. She could argue fluently on Italian or Flemish
painting, on the Middle Ages or the Renaissance; pronounced at
haphazard on books new or old, and could expose the defects of a work
with a cruelly graceful wit. The simplest thing she said was accepted
by an admiring crowd as a fetfah of the Sultan by the Turks. She thus
dazzled shallow persons; as to deeper minds, her natural tact enabled
her to discern them, and for them she put forth so much fascination
that, under cover of her charms, she escaped their scrutiny. This
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie: table in the left wing?"
"Yes, sir." Annie had been growing redder and redder in the face,
and now she blurted out unexpectedly:
"And if there *WAS salt in it, sir, it wasn't me. I never took
the salt near it."
"What makes you think there was salt in it?" asked Poirot.
"Seeing it on the tray, sir."
"You saw some salt on the tray?"
"Yes. Coarse kitchen salt, it looked. I never noticed it when I
took the tray up, but when I came to take it into the mistress's
room I saw it at once, and I suppose I ought to have taken it
The Mysterious Affair at Styles |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: seated on a chair, surrounded by French soldiers, and in presence of a
curious and observing crowd. He gazed stupidly at a Republican officer
engaged in taking the testimony of several witnesses, and in writing
down, no doubt, the "proces-verbal." He recognized the landlord, his
wife, the two boatmen, and the servant of the Red Inn. The surgical
instrument which the murderer had used--
[Here Monsieur Taillefer coughed, drew out his handkerchief to blow
his nose, and wiped his forehead. These perfectly natural motions were
noticed by me only; the other guests sat with their eyes fixed on
Monsieur Hermann, to whom they were listening with a sort of avidity.
The purveyor leaned his elbow on the table, put his head into his
|
