| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy: over. They were ordinary leases for three lives, which a member
of the South family, some fifty years before this time, had
accepted of the lord of the manor in lieu of certain copyholds and
other rights, in consideration of having the dilapidated houses
rebuilt by said lord. They had come into his father's possession
chiefly through his mother, who was a South.
Pinned to the parchment of one of the indentures was a letter,
which Winterborne had never seen before. It bore a remote date,
the handwriting being that of some solicitor or agent, and the
signature the landholder's. It was to the effect that at any time
before the last of the stated lives should drop, Mr. Giles
 The Woodlanders |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Little Britain by Washington Irving: field against the family of the butcher. It is true that the
Lambs, having had the first start, had naturally an advantage of
them in the fashionable career. They could speak a little bad
French, play the piano, dance quadrilles, and had formed high
acquaintances; but the Trotters were not to be distanced.
When the Lambs appeared with two feathers in their hats, the
Miss Trotters mounted four, and of twice as fine colors. If the
Lambs gave a dance, the Trotters were sure not to be
behindhand: and though they might not boast of as good
company, yet they had double the number, and were twice as
merry.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Merry Men by Robert Louis Stevenson: and then back again, as if to whet his appetite. Indeed there was
one corner of the road, whence he could see the church-spire wedged
into a crevice of the valley between sloping firwoods, with a
triangular snatch of plain by way of background, which he greatly
affected as a place to sit and moralise in before returning
homewards; and the peasants got so much into the habit of finding
him there in the twilight that they gave it the name of 'Will o'
the Mill's Corner.'
At the end of the three years Marjory played him a sad trick by
suddenly marrying somebody else. Will kept his countenance
bravely, and merely remarked that, for as little as he knew of
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