| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: In fact, his answer /is/ irresistible. The convent of the Ursuline
sisters--heavens and earth! that can't be the rendezvous of makers of
false coin; and if the Mother Marie-des-Anges guarantees my father to
me, as it appears she has already done to the notary, I should be
foolish indeed to persist in my doubts.
"Very good," I said to Jacques Bricheteau, "I will go up and get my
hat and walk up and down the bank of the river until you are ready."
"That's right; and be sure you watch the door of the hotel to see that
I do not give you the slip as I did once upon a time on the Quai de
Bethune."
Impossible to be more intelligent than that man; he seems to divine
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: success rejoice together, in misfortune share their troubles; and so
long as health endures make merry cheer, day in day out; or if either
of them should fall on sickness, then will their intercourse be yet
more constant; and if they cared for one another face to face, much
more will they care when parted.[39] Are not all these the outward
tokens of true loveliness?[40] In the exercise of such sweet offices,
at any rate, they show their passion for holy friendship's state, and
prove its bliss, continuously pacing life's path from youth to eld.
[38] For beauty of style (in the original) Zeune cf. "Mem." II. vi. 28
foll.; III. xi. 10.
[39] "Albeit absent from one another in the body, they are more
The Symposium |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie: the stairs across the hall to the boudoir, the door of which she
shut behind her.
As I ran out to the tennis court a few moments later, I had to
pass the open boudoir window, and was unable to help overhearing
the following scrap of dialogue. Mary Cavendish was saying in
the voice of a woman desperately controlling herself:
"Then you won't show it to me?"
To which Mrs. Inglethorp replied:
"My dear Mary, it has nothing to do with that matter."
"Then show it to me."
"I tell you it is not what you imagine. It does not concern you
The Mysterious Affair at Styles |
