| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: " 'The Count owes you your fee for drawing up the agreement!' Gobseck
called after me as I took my leave.
"One morning, a few days after the scene which initiated me into the
terrible depths beneath the surface of the life of a woman of fashion,
the Count came into my private office.
" 'I have come to consult you on a matter of grave moment,' he said,
'and I begin by telling you that I have perfect confidence in you, as
I hope to prove to you. Your behavior to Mme. de Grandlieu is above
all praise,' the Count went on. (You see, madame, that you have paid
me a thousand times over for a very simple matter.)
"I bowed respectfully, and replied that I had done nothing but the
Gobseck |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy: been informed that Henchard had entered her husband's
service, rambled straight on to the barn, where she came
suddenly upon Henchard, and gave vent to a little "Oh!"
which the happy and busy Donald was too far off to hear.
Henchard, with withering humility of demeanour, touched the
brim of his hat to her as Whittle and the rest had done, to
which she breathed a dead-alive "Good afternoon."
"I beg your pardon, ma'am?" said Henchard, as if he had not
heard.
"I said good afternoon," she faltered.
"O yes, good afternoon, ma'am," he replied, touching his hat
The Mayor of Casterbridge |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: their coming wore off; and I began to take my former thoughts of a
voyage to the main into consideration; being likewise assured by
Friday's father that I might depend upon good usage from their
nation, on his account, if I would go. But my thoughts were a
little suspended when I had a serious discourse with the Spaniard,
and when I understood that there were sixteen more of his
countrymen and Portuguese, who having been cast away and made their
escape to that side, lived there at peace, indeed, with the
savages, but were very sore put to it for necessaries, and, indeed,
for life. I asked him all the particulars of their voyage, and
found they were a Spanish ship, bound from the Rio de la Plata to
Robinson Crusoe |
