| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tom Grogan by F. Hopkinson Smith: Tom from the first time he saw her,--he had looked after her
stables professionally,--and he did not intend to see her, dead or
alive, thrown out, without making a fight for her.
"I move," said he, "that the president appoint a committee of this
board to jump into the nearest wagon, drive to Mrs. Grogan's, and
find out whether she is still alive. If she's dead, that settles
it; but if she's alive, I will protest against anything being done
about this matter for ten days. It won't take twenty minutes to
find out; meantime we can take up the unfinished business of the
last meeting."
One of the gentlemen of leisure seconded this motion; it was
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from 'Twixt Land & Sea by Joseph Conrad: on the rare mail tracks, where civilisation brushes against wild
mystery, when the naive passengers crowding along the rail
exclaimed, pointing at her with interest: "Oh, here's a yacht!"
the Dutch captain, with a hostile glance, would grunt
contemptuously: "Yacht! No! That's only English Jasper. A
pedlar - "
"A good seaman you say," ejaculated Jasper, still in the matter of
the hopeless Schultz with the wonderfully touching voice.
"First rate. Ask any one. Quite worth having - only impossible,"
I declared.
"He shall have his chance to reform in the brig," said Jasper, with
'Twixt Land & Sea |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Man in Lower Ten by Mary Roberts Rinehart: "You must not do that," the girl insisted. I noticed now that she
kept her back to the wreck, her eyes averted. "The weight of the
traveling-bag must be agony. Let me support the valise until we get
back a few yards. Then you must lie down until we can get it cut
off."
"Will it have to be cut off?" I asked as calmly as possible. There
were red-hot stabs of agony clear to my neck, but we were moving
slowly away from the track.
"Yes," she replied, with dumfounding coolness. "If I had a knife I
could do it myself. You might sit here and lean against this fence."
By that time my returning faculties had realized that she was going
The Man in Lower Ten |
