The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Poor and Proud by Oliver Optic: and scratched and pricked her hands with the sharp bones; but she
was resolute, and finally accomplished the task to her entire
satisfaction. An occasional direction from her mother enabled her
to cook the fish properly, and dinner was ready. There were still
a few small stores left in the closet, and Katy made a cup of tea
for her mother, and with it placed the delicate little flounder
by the side of the bed. The invalid had no appetite, but to
please Katy she ate a portion of the fish and bread though it was
very hard work for her to do so. The little girl, gladdened by
this unwonted sight, made a hearty meal, without a thought of the
trials and sorrows which the future might have in store for them.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: a priest had completed the work.
To render this adventure comprehensible, it is necessary to add here
that Lord Dudley naturally found many women disposed to reproduce
samples of such a delicious pattern. His second masterpiece of this
kind was a young girl named Euphemie, born of a Spanish lady, reared
in Havana, and brought to Madrid with a young Creole woman of the
Antilles, and with all the ruinous tastes of the Colonies, but
fortunately married to an old and extremely rich Spanish noble, Don
Hijos, Marquis de San-Real, who, since the occupation of Spain by
French troops, had taken up his abode in Paris, and lived in the Rue
St. Lazare. As much from indifference as from any respect for the
 The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Weir of Hermiston by Robert Louis Stevenson: is she a lady?"
This was torture to Archie. "I beg your pardon," he said, struggling to
be composed, "but because you have wormed yourself into my confidence - "
"O, come!" cried Frank. "Your confidence? It was rosy but
unconsenting. Your confidence, indeed? Now, look! This is what I must
say, Weir, for it concerns your safety and good character, and therefore
my honour as your friend. You say I wormed myself into your confidence.
Wormed is good. But what have I done? I have put two and two together,
just as the parish will be doing tomorrow, and the whole of Tweeddale in
two weeks, and the black brothers - well, I won't put a date on that; it
will be a dark and stormy morning! Your secret, in other words, is poor
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