| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle: may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to
the King without delay."
We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was
searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said:
"Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes."
There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the
greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had
hurried by.
"I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the
dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have
been."
 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: "What are you going to do, Jean?" asked Madame Dumay; "how can you
discover a young girl's secret if she means to hide it?"
"Obey me, all!" cried the lieutenant, "I shall need every one of you."
If this rapid sketch were clearly developed it would give a whole
picture of manners and customs in which many a family could recognize
the events of their own history; but it must suffice as it is to
explain the importance of the few details heretofore given about
persons and things on the memorable evening when the old soldier had
made ready his plot against the young girl, intending to wrench from
the recesses of her heart the secret of a love and a lover seen only
by a blind mother.
 Modeste Mignon |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: for all that they know to the contrary.... Perhaps that's what I am!"
Nevertheless, he found himself clinging to the hope of some reply
as to his one last chance of redemption. He waited day after day,
saying that it was perfectly absurd to expect, yet expecting.
While he waited he was suddenly stirred by news about Phillotson.
Phillotson was giving up the school near Christminster, for a larger
one further south, in Mid-Wessex. What this meant; how it would
affect his cousin; whether, as seemed possible, it was a practical
move of the schoolmaster's towards a larger income, in view of a
provision for two instead of one, he would not allow himself to say.
And the tender relations between Phillotson and the young girl
 Jude the Obscure |