| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: incomplete without due mention of these PREVENTIVE officials, as they
may be called, the most powerful adjuncts of the law; for though it
must be owned that the force of circumstances has abrogated the
ancient pomp and wealth of justice, it has materially gained in many
ways. In Paris especially its machinery is admirably perfect.
Monsieur de Granville had sent his secretary, Monsieur de Chargeboeuf,
to attend Lucien's funeral; he needed a substitute for this business,
a man he could trust, and Monsieur Garnery was one of the
commissioners in the Delegates' office.
"Monsieur," said Jacques Collin, "I have already proved to you that I
have a sense of honor. You let me go free, and I came back.--By this
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Glasses by Henry James: a motion but half conscious, she inclined her head into the void
with the sketch of a salute, producing, I could see, a perfect
imitation of response to some homage. Dawling and I looked at each
other again; the tears came into his eyes. She was playing at
perfection still, and her misfortune only simplified the process.
I recognised that this was as near as I should ever come, certainly
as I should come that night, to pressing on her misfortune.
Neither of us would name it more than we were doing then, and Flora
would never name it at all. Little by little I saw that what had
occurred was, strange as it might appear, the best thing for her
happiness. The question was now only of her beauty and her being
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Sons of the Soil by Honore de Balzac: against him. The housekeeper died. Rigou contrived to work up the
abbe's resentment to such a pitch that he made a will disinheriting
Jean-Francois Niseron in favor of Arsene Pichard.
In 1823 Rigou, perhaps out of a sense of gratitude, still blew the
fire with an air-cane, and left the bellows hanging to the screw.
Madame Niseron, idolizing her daughter, did not long survive her.
Mother and child died in 1794. The old abbe, too, was dead, and
citizen Rigou took charge of Arsene's affairs by marrying her. A
former convert in the monastery, attached to Rigou as a dog is to his
master, became the groom, gardener, herdsman, valet, and steward of
the sensual Harpagon. Arsene Rigou, the daughter, married in 1821
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