| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: and it is odd, but do you know, I have been troubled with a
foreboding that you would be the end of me. That is one of the
reasons why I sought a change of air to these warmer regions. But
see the folly of forebodings, my friend. I am still alive, though
I have been ill, and I mean to go on living, but you are--forgive
me for mentioning it--you are already dead. Indeed those
gentlemen,' and he pointed to the two black men who were taking
advantage of our talk to throw into the sea the slave who followed
me up the hatchway, 'are waiting to put a stop to our conversation.
Have you any message that I can deliver for you? If so, out with
it, for time is short and that hold must be cleared by daybreak.'
Montezuma's Daughter |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Distinguished Provincial at Paris by Honore de Balzac: and went off to Mme. de Listomere, Vandenesse's sister. The second act
began, and the three were left to themselves again. The curious women
learned how Mme. de Bargeton came to be there from some of the party,
while the others announced the arrival of a poet, and made fun of his
costume. Canalis went back to the Duchesse de Chaulieu, and no more
was seen of him.
Lucien was glad when the rising of the curtain produced a diversion.
All Mme. de Bargeton's misgivings with regard to Lucien were increased
by the marked attention which the Marquise d'Espard had shown to
Chatelet; her manner towards the Baron was very different from the
patronizing affability with which she treated Lucien. Mme. de
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: of an innocent girl, to give her for the rest of her life bad dreams,
to deprive her of all her illusions, and say, 'Your gold is stained
with blood'? I have borrowed the 'Dictionary of Cases of Conscience'
from an old ecclesiastic, but I can find nothing there to solve my
doubts. Shall I found pious masses for the repose of the souls of
Prosper Magnan, Wahlenfer, and Taillefer? Here we are in the middle of
the nineteenth century! Shall I build a hospital, or institute a prize
for virtue? A prize for virtue would be given to scoundrels; and as
for hospitals, they seem to me to have become in these days the
protectors of vice. Besides, such charitable actions, more or less
profitable to vanity, do they constitute reparation?--and to whom do I
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