| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Court Life in China by Isaac Taylor Headland: this term in speaking of me to my assistant until I objected,
when they asked with surprise,--'Doesn't she like to be called
foreign devil?' " And so the Empress Dowager's first impression
of the foreigner would be that of a devil.
Colonel Denby tells us that "A Frenchman and his wife were
carried off from Tonquin by bandits who took refuge in China. The
Chinese government was asked to rescue these prisoners and
restore them to liberty. China sent a brigade of troops, who
pursued the bandits to their den and recovered the prisoners. The
French government thanked the Chinese government for its
assistance, and bestowed the decoration of the Legion of Honour
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson: pack - but I perceive you are about to see the thing in progress.
Will you lend me the help of your arm? I am unfortunately
paralysed."
Indeed, just as Mr. Malthus was beginning his description, another
pair of folding-doors was thrown open, and the whole club began to
pass, not without some hurry, into the adjoining room. It was
similar in every respect to the one from which it was entered, but
somewhat differently furnished. The centre was occupied by a long
green table, at which the President sat shuffling a pack of cards
with great particularity. Even with the stick and the Colonel's
arm, Mr. Malthus walked with so much difficulty that every one was
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Memories and Portraits by Robert Louis Stevenson: instantly abandon hope; he may employ reason, adduce facts, be
supple, be smiling, be angry, all shall avail him nothing; what the
woman said first, that (unless she has forgotten it) she will
repeat at the end. Hence, at the very junctures when a talk
between men grows brighter and quicker and begins to promise to
bear fruit, talk between the sexes is menaced with dissolution.
The point of difference, the point of interest, is evaded by the
brilliant woman, under a shower of irrelevant conversational
rockets; it is bridged by the discreet woman with a rustle of silk,
as she passes smoothly forward to the nearest point of safety. And
this sort of prestidigitation, juggling the dangerous topic out of
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