| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Daughter of Eve by Honore de Balzac: articles were equal to books, he said. The profits of theatrical work
then allured him; but, incapable of the slow and steady application
required for stage arrangement, he was forced to associate with
himself a vaudevillist, du Bruel, who took his ideas, worked them
over, and reduced them into those productive little pieces, full of
wit, which are written expressly for actors and actresses. Between
them, they had invented Florine, an actress now in vogue.
Humiliated by this association, which was that of the Siamese twins,
Nathan had produced alone, at the Theatre-Francais, a serious drama,
which fell with all the honors of war amid salvos of thundering
articles. In his youth he had once before appeared at the great and
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Mad King by Edgar Rice Burroughs: trooper emerge from the underbrush beside the first. Maenck
was crazed with anger. He shook his fist and screamed aloud
his threatening commands to halt, and then, of a sudden,
gave an order to one of the men at his side. Immediately
the fellow raised his carbine and fired at the escaping couple.
The bullet struck the water behind them. At the sound of
the report the girl raised the gun she held and leveled it at
the group behind her. She pulled the trigger. There was a
sharp report, and one of the troopers fell. Then she fired
again, quickly, and again and again. She did not score an-
other hit, but she had the satisfaction of seeing Maenck and
The Mad King |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Bucky O'Connor by William MacLeod Raine: reflection followed by slumber. He was on the edge of a volcano,
and he knew it. The question was whether he could hold the lid on
without an eruption. General Valdez he dared not openly kill, on
account of his fame and his popularity, but that pestilent
Irishman O'Halloran could be assassinated and so could several of
his allies--if they only gave him time. That was the rub. The
general dissatisfaction at his rule had been no secret, of
course, but the activity of the faction opposing him, the
boldness and daring with which it had risked all to overthrow
him, had come as so complete a surprise that he had been
unprepared to meet it. Everywhere to-night his guards covered the
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