| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: lull in the storm, Lakamba repeated softly, as if to himself,
"Much easier. Much better."
Dain did not seem greatly discomposed by the Rajah's threatening
words. While Lakamba was speaking he had glanced once rapidly
over his shoulder, just to make sure that there was nobody behind
him, and, tranquillised in that respect, he had extracted a
siri-box out of the folds of his waist-cloth, and was wrapping
carefully the little bit of betel-nut and a small pinch of lime
in the green leaf tendered him politely by the watchful
Babalatchi. He accepted this as a peace- offering from the
silent statesman--a kind of mute protest against his master's
Almayer's Folly |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne: a rough heartiness of word and manner, which most people took to be
the genuine warmth of nature, making its way through the thick and
inflexible hide of a manly character. His descendant, in compliance
with the requirements of a nicer age, had etherealized this rude
benevolence into that broad benignity of smile wherewith he shone
like a noonday sun along the streets, or glowed like a household
fire in the drawing-rooms of his private acquaintance. The Puritan
--if not belied by some singular stories, murmured, even at this
day, under the narrator's breath--had fallen into certain
transgressions to which men of his great animal development,
whatever their faith or principles, must continue liable, until
House of Seven Gables |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie: possibly have destroyed that will--Mrs. Inglethorp herself!"
"Impossible!" I exclaimed. "She had only made it out that very
afternoon!"
"Nevertheless, mon ami, it was Mrs. Inglethorp. Because, in no
other way can you account for the fact that, on one of the
hottest days of the year, Mrs. Inglethorp ordered a fire to be
lighted in her room."
I gave a gasp. What idiots we had been never to think of that
fire as being incongruous! Poirot was continuing:
"The temperature on that day, messieurs, was 80 degrees in the
shade. Yet Mrs. Inglethorp ordered a fire! Why? Because she
The Mysterious Affair at Styles |
