| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson: tragedy," said I.
"Why, no, sir, not at all," returned the lawyer. "For tragedy
implies some ponderable matter in dispute, some dignus vindice
nodus; and this piece of work was all about the petulance of a
young ass that had been spoiled, and wanted nothing so much as to
be tied up and soundly belted. However, that was not your
father's view; and the end of it was, that from concession to
concession on your father's part, and from one height to another
of squalling, sentimental selfishness upon your uncle's, they
came at last to drive a sort of bargain, from whose ill results
you have recently been smarting. The one man took the lady, the
Kidnapped |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Virginian by Owen Wister: lay with his eyes still full open upon her where she sat
motionless.
She began to feel a greater awe in this living presence than when
it had been his body with an ice-cold hand; and she quietly spoke
his name, venturing scarcely more than a whisper.
At this, some nearer thing wakened in his look. "But it was you
all along," he resumed. "It is you now. You must not stay--"
Weakness overcame him, and his eyes closed. She sat ministering
to him, and when he roused again, he began anxiously at once:
"You must not stay. They would get you, too."
She glanced at him with a sort of fierceness, then reached for
The Virginian |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: the boarders were hurried off to a little corrugated iron mission hall
where Miss Eccles (of London) held her "select" classes. But the
difference between that dusty-smelling hall--with calico texts on the
walls, the poor terrified little woman in a brown velvet toque with
rabbit's ears thumping the cold piano, Miss Eccles poking the girls' feet
with her long white wand--and this was so tremendous that Leila was sure if
her partner didn't come and she had to listen to that marvellous music and
to watch the others sliding, gliding over the golden floor, she would die
at least, or faint, or lift her arms and fly out of one of those dark
windows that showed the stars.
"Ours, I think--" Some one bowed, smiled, and offered her his arm; she
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