| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: Your handmaiden,
O. d'Este M.
To Mademoiselle O. d'Este M.,--You are a witch, a spirit, and I
love you! Is that what you desire of me, most original of girls?
Perhaps you are only seeking to amuse your provincial leisure with
the follies which are you able to make a poet commit. If so, you
have done a bad deed. Your two letters have enough of the spirit
of mischief in them to force this doubt into the mind of a
Parisian. But I am no longer master of myself; my life, my future
depend on the answer you will make me. Tell me if the certainty of
an unbounded affection, oblivious of all social conventions, will
Modeste Mignon |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde: SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. I am so glad. Do tell me what it is.
MRS. CHEVELEY. Later on. [Rises.] And now may I walk through your
beautiful house? I hear your pictures are charming. Poor Baron
Arnheim - you remember the Baron? - used to tell me you had some
wonderful Corots.
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [With an almost imperceptible start.] Did you
know Baron Arnheim well?
MRS. CHEVELEY. [Smiling.] Intimately. Did you?
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. At one time.
MRS. CHEVELEY. Wonderful man, wasn't he?
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [After a pause.] He was very remarkable, in
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Vicar of Tours by Honore de Balzac: Chapeloud was absolutely necessary, and since the death of that
venerable man, he has shown'--and then came suggestions, calumnies!
you understand?"
"Troubert will be made vicar-general," said Monsieur de Bourbonne,
sententiously.
"Come!" cried Madame de Listomere, turning to Birotteau, "which do you
prefer, to be made a canon, or continue to live with Mademoiselle
Gamard?"
"To be a canon!" cried the whole company.
"Well, then," resumed Madame de Listomere, "you must let the Abbe
Troubert and Mademoiselle Gamard have things their own way. By sending
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