| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Daisy Miller by Henry James: "I should think you had better find out what time it is,"
interposed her mother.
"It is eleven o'clock, madam," said a voice, with a foreign accent,
out of the neighboring darkness; and Winterbourne, turning, perceived
the florid personage who was in attendance upon the two ladies.
He had apparently just approached.
"Oh, Eugenio," said Daisy, "I am going out in a boat!"
Eugenio bowed. "At eleven o'clock, mademoiselle?"
"I am going with Mr. Winterbourne--this very minute."
"Do tell her she can't," said Mrs. Miller to the courier.
"I think you had better not go out in a boat, mademoiselle," Eugenio declared.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: daughter talking and arguing like that! Broooouh! Pouah! A fine New
Year's present you've made me, Eugenie," he called out. "Yes, yes, cry
away! What you've done will bring you remorse, do you hear? What's the
good of taking the sacrament six times every three months, if you give
away your father's gold secretly to an idle fellow who'll eat your
heart out when you've nothing else to give him? You'll find out some
day what your Charles is worth, with his morocco boots and
supercilious airs. He has got neither heart nor soul if he dared to
carry off a young girl's treasure without the consent of her parents."
When the street-door was shut, Eugenie came out of her room and went
to her mother.
Eugenie Grandet |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde: for that pretty prude with wonderful promptitude. He is just what
I should have liked a son of mine to be. Except that no son of
mine should ever take the side of the Puritans: that is always an
error. Now, what I propose is this.
MRS. ARBUTHNOT. Lord Illingworth, no proposition of yours
interests me.
LORD ILLINGWORTH. According to our ridiculous English laws, I
can't legitimise Gerald. But I can leave him my property.
Illingworth is entailed, of course, but it is a tedious barrack of
a place. He can have Ashby, which is much prettier, Harborough,
which has the best shooting in the north of England, and the house
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