| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne: morsel so sweet, - and to what magic I owe it, that the draught I
took of their flagon was so delicious with it, that they remain
upon my palate to this hour?
If the supper was to my taste, - the grace which followed it was
much more so.
THE GRACE.
WHEN supper was over, the old man gave a knock upon the table with
the haft of his knife, to bid them prepare for the dance: the
moment the signal was given, the women and girls ran altogether
into a back apartment to tie up their hair, - and the young men to
the door to wash their faces, and change their sabots; and in three
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: welcome. Outside in the night they continued to sound on,
swelling and fainting; and the listener heard in his memory,
as it were their harmonies, joy-bells clashing in a northern
city, and the acclamations of a multitude, the cries of
battle, the gross voices of cannon, the stridor of an
animated life. And then all died away, and he stood face to
face with himself in the waste of vacancy, and a horror came
upon his mind, and a faintness on his brain, such as seizes
men upon the brink of cliffs.
On the table, by the side of the candle, stood a tray of
glasses, a bottle, and a silver bell. He went thither
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy: Beard's chamber, which she had entered, and which she did not understand.
She did not wish Frank to find her here, and with a fast look round,
she once more turned to the door. As she did so, her foot knocked
against a small object, which had apparently been lying close to the desk,
on the carpet, and which now went rolling, right across the room.
She stooped to pick it up. It was a solid gold ring, with a
flat shield, on which was engraved a small device.
Marguerite turned it over in her fingers, and then studied the
engraving on the shield. It represented a small star-shaped flower,
of a shape she had seen so distinctly twice before: once at the opera,
and once at Lord Grenville's ball.
The Scarlet Pimpernel |
