| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: particularly on seeing his friend in such humble guise --
that he had made so fine a fortune. Then D'Artagnan, seeing
that the hour of explanations was come, related the history
of his English adventures. During the recital he saw, ten
times, the eyes of the prelate sparkle, and his slender
fingers work convulsively. As to Porthos, it was not
admiration he manifested for D'Artagnan; it was enthusiasm,
it was delirium. When D'Artagnan had finished, "Well!" said
Aramis.
"Well!" said D'Artagnan, "you see, then, I have in England
friends and property, in France a treasure. If your heart
Ten Years Later |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Study of a Woman by Honore de Balzac: marquise was out. As he was getting back into his carriage the Marquis
de Listomere came home.
"Come in, Eugene," he said. "My wife is at home."
Pray excuse the marquis. A husband, however good he may be, never
attains perfection. As they went up the staircase Rastignac perceived
at least a dozen blunders in worldly wisdom which had, unaccountably,
slipped into this page of the glorious book of his life.
When Madame de Listomere saw her husband ushering in Eugene she could
not help blushing. The young baron saw that sudden color. If the most
humble-minded man retains in the depths of his soul a certain conceit
of which he never rids himself, any more than a woman ever rids
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: all lay down their pens, and Colleville blows his nose.] "Every one of
us is to be promoted! Colleville will be under-head-clerk at the very
least. Minard may have my place as chief clerk--why not? he is quite
as dull as I am. Hey, Minard, if you should get twenty-five hundred
francs a-year your little wife would be uncommonly pleased, and you
could buy yourself a pair of boots now and then."
Colleville. "But you don't get twenty-five hundred francs."
Bixiou. "Monsieur Dutocq gets that in Rabourdin's office; why
shouldn't I get it this year? Monsieur Baudoyer gets it."
Colleville. "Only through the influence of Monsieur Saillard. No other
chief clerk gets that in any of the divisions."
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