| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Walter Scott: that, for a certain gratification, which of course was not an
inconsiderable one, Doctor Baptista Damiotti could tell the fate
of the absent, and even show his visitors the personal form of
their absent friends, and the action in which they were engaged
at the moment. This rumour came to the ears of Lady Forester,
who had reached that pitch of mental agony in which the sufferer
will do anything, or endure anything, that suspense may be
converted into certainty.
Gentle and timid in most cases, her state of mind made her
equally obstinate and reckless, and it was with no small surprise
and alarm that her sister, Lady Bothwell, heard her express a
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton: "No. I wasn't thinking," murmured Evelina.
"Well, ain't you glad now?" Ann Eliza gently reproached her.
The rebuke had no acerbity, for she knew that Evelina's seeming
indifference was alive with unexpressed scruples.
"I'm real glad, sister; but you hadn't oughter. We could have
got on well enough without."
"Evelina Bunner, just you sit down to your tea. I guess I
know what I'd oughter and what I'd hadn't oughter just as well as
you do--I'm old enough!"
"You're real good, Ann Eliza; but I know you've given up
something you needed to get me this clock."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: for ourselves. To be guided by second-hand conjecture
is pitiful. The premises are before you. My brother is
a lively and perhaps sometimes a thoughtless young man;
he has had about a week's acquaintance with your friend,
and he has known her engagement almost as long as he has
known her."
"Well," said Catherine, after some moments' consideration,
"you may be able to guess at your brother's intentions from
all this; but I am sure I cannot. But is not your father
uncomfortable about it? Does not he want Captain Tilney
to go away? Sure, if your father were to speak to him,
Northanger Abbey |
