| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from St. Ives by Robert Louis Stevenson: enabled to command some part of the garden walks and (under an
evergreen arch) the front lawn and windows of the cottage. For
long nothing stirred except my friend with the spade; then I heard
the opening of a sash; and presently after saw Miss Flora appear in
a morning wrapper and come strolling hitherward between the
borders, pausing and visiting her flowers - herself as fair. THERE
was a friend; HERE, immediately beneath me, an unknown quantity -
the gardener: how to communicate with the one and not attract the
notice of the other? To make a noise was out of the question; I
dared scarce to breathe. I held myself ready to make a gesture as
soon as she should look, and she looked in every possible direction
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne: settlement ensued. This accident cost the life of several workmen.
No fresh occurrence thenceforward arrested the progress of the
operation; and on the tenth of June, twenty days before the
expiration of the period fixed by Barbicane, the well, lined
throughout with its facing of stone, had attained the depth of
900 feet. At the bottom the masonry rested upon a massive block
measuring thirty feet in thickness, while on the upper portion
it was level with the surrounding soil.
President Barbicane and the members of the Gun Club warmly
congratulated their engineer Murchison; the cyclopean work had
been accomplished with extraordinary rapidity.
From the Earth to the Moon |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Rezanov by Gertrude Atherton: beyond anything California would yield in her day.
As Rezanov, upon Dona Ignacia's retreat,
walked directly over to her, she smilingly seated
herself on a sofa and swept aside her voluminous
white skirts. She was not sure that she liked him,
but in no doubt whatever of her delight at his
advent.
Her manners were very simple and artless, as
are the manners of most women whom Nature has
gifted with complexity and depth.
"It is now two years and more that we have
Rezanov |
