| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Man in Lower Ten by Mary Roberts Rinehart: you do," he said, as he plied the ubiquitous whisk broom.
"When I get the owner of these clothes," I retorted grimly, "he
will need a shroud. Where's the conductor?"
The conductor was coming, he assured me; also that there was no bag
answering the description of mine on the car. I slammed my way to
the dressing-room, washed, choked my fifteen and a half neck into a
fifteen collar, and was back again in less than five minutes. The
car, as well as its occupants, was gradually taking on a daylight
appearance. I hobbled in, for one of the shoes was abominably tight,
and found myself facing a young woman in blue with an unforgettable
face. ("Three women already." McKnight says: "That's going some,
The Man in Lower Ten |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Europeans by Henry James: Here she paused a moment, gave a pinch to her waist with her
two hands, or raised these members--they were very plump and pretty--
to the multifold braids of her hair, with a movement half caressing,
half corrective. An attentive observer might have fancied
that during these periods of desultory self-inspection her face
forgot its melancholy; but as soon as she neared the window again
it began to proclaim that she was a very ill-pleased woman.
And indeed, in what met her eyes there was little to be
pleased with. The window-panes were battered by the sleet;
the head-stones in the grave-yard beneath seemed to be
holding themselves askance to keep it out of their faces.
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Black Beauty by Anna Sewell: a good place. I asked him what made him shy.
"Well, I hardly know," he said. "I was timid when I was young,
and was a good deal frightened several times, and if I saw anything strange
I used to turn and look at it -- you see, with our blinkers
one can't see or understand what a thing is unless one looks round --
and then my master always gave me a whipping, which of course made me
start on, and did not make me less afraid. I think if he would have let me
just look at things quietly, and see that there was nothing to hurt me,
it would have been all right, and I should have got used to them.
One day an old gentleman was riding with him, and a large piece
of white paper or rag blew across just on one side of me.
|
