| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Talisman by Walter Scott: perhaps,that he repeated the same words as before.
"Hence, I am in no vein for foolery," said the Emperor.
"Nor am I further fool," said the dwarf, "than to make my folly
help out my wits to earn my bread, poor, helpless wretch! Hear,
hear me, great Soldan!"
"Nay, if thou hast actual wrong to complain of," said Saladin,
"fool or wise, thou art entitled to the ear of a King. Retire
hither with me;" and he led him into the inner tent.
Whatever their conference related to, it was soon broken off by
the fanfare of the trumpets announcing the arrival of the various
Christian princes, whom Saladin welcomed to his tent with a royal
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy: close before the other men, for fear they should think it
bad manners in me." Christian took them out and examined
them in the hollow of his hand by the lantern light.
"That these little things should carry such luck,
and such charm, and such a spell, and such power in 'em,
passes all I ever heard or zeed," he went on, with a
fascinated gaze at the dice, which, as is frequently
the case in country places, were made of wood, the points
being burnt upon each face with the end of a wire.
"They are a great deal in a small compass, You think?"
"Yes. Do ye suppose they really be the devil's playthings,
Return of the Native |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories by Alice Dunbar: with her usual stifled sigh.
Tony and his wife had always been in this same little queer old
shop on Prytania Street, at least to the memory of the oldest
inhabitant in the neighbourhood. When or how they came, or how
they stayed, no one knew; it was enough that they were there,
like a sort of ancestral fixture to the street. The
neighbourhood was fine enough to look down upon these two
tumble-down shops at the corner, kept by Tony and Mrs. Murphy,
the grocer. It was a semi-fashionable locality, far up-town,
away from the old-time French quarter. It was the sort of
neighbourhood where millionaires live before their fortunes are
The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories |
