| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde: would have turned from me in horror . . . in horror and in contempt.
LORD GORING. Is Lady Chiltern as perfect as all that?
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Yes; my wife is as perfect as all that.
LORD GORING. [Taking off his left-hand glove.] What a pity! I beg
your pardon, my dear fellow, I didn't quite mean that. But if what
you tell me is true, I should like to have a serious talk about life
with Lady Chiltern.
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. It would be quite useless.
LORD GORING. May I try?
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Yes; but nothing could make her alter her
views.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair: the boarders that Aniele cleaned house by letting the chickens loose in
the rooms. Undoubtedly this did keep down the vermin, but it seemed
probable, in view of all the circumstances, that the old lady regarded it
rather as feeding the chickens than as cleaning the rooms. The truth was
that she had definitely given up the idea of cleaning anything, under
pressure of an attack of rheumatism, which had kept her doubled up in
one corner of her room for over a week; during which time eleven of her
boarders, heavily in her debt, had concluded to try their chances of
employment in Kansas City. This was July, and the fields were green.
One never saw the fields, nor any green thing whatever, in Packingtown;
but one could go out on the road and "hobo it," as the men phrased it,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Breaking Point by Mary Roberts Rinehart: that I can keep my mouth shut, walk out of here, and have you in
quod in the next hour, if I decide to."
"But you won't," Bassett said smoothly. "You won't, any more than
you did it last spring, when you sent that little letter of yours
to David Livingstone."
"No. You're right. I won't. But if I tell you what I came here
to say, Bassett, get this straight. It's not because I'm afraid of
you, or of him. Donaldson's dead. What value would Melis's
testimony have after ten years, if you put him on the stand? It's
not that. It's because you'll put your blundering foot into it and
ruin Bev's career, unless I tell you the truth."
The Breaking Point |
