| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: extent, but at the time of her acquaintance with La Palferine she had
not yet 'an establishment.' Antonia was not wanting in the insolence
of old days, now degenerating into rudeness among women of her class.
After a fortnight of unmixed bliss, she was compelled, in the interest
of her civil list, to return to a less exclusive system; and La
Palferine, discovering a certain lack of sincerity in her dealings
with him, sent Madame Antonia a note which made her famous.
" 'MADAME,--Your conduct causes me much surprise and no less
distress. Not content with rending my heart with your disdain, you
have been so little thoughtful as to retain a toothbrush, which my
means will not permit me to replace, my estates being mortgaged
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Youth by Joseph Conrad: stammered out as if conscious of some gross neglect of
duty, 'I don't know where the cabin-table is.' It was
like an absurd dream.
"Do you know what he wanted next? Well, he
wanted to trim the yards. Very placidly, and as if lost
in thought, he insisted on having the foreyard squared.
'I don't know if there's anybody alive,' said Mahon,
almost tearfully. 'Surely,' he said gently, 'there will
be enough left to square the foreyard.'
"The old chap, it seems, was in his own berth, wind-
ing up the chronometers, when the shock sent him spin-
Youth |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock: his daughter to the friar, and from the friar to his daughter again,
with an alternate expression of anger differently modified:
when he looked on the friar, it was anger without qualification;
when he looked on his daughter it was still anger, but tempered
by an expression of involuntary admiration and pleasure.
These rapid fluctuations of the baron's physiognomy--the habitual,
reckless, resolute merriment in the jovial face of the friar,--
and the cheerful, elastic spirits that played on the lips
and sparkled in the eyes of Matilda,--would have presented
a very amusing combination to Sir Ralph, if one of the three
images in the group had not absorbed his total attention
|
