| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Touchstone by Edith Wharton: "Could you get on without varnished boots?"
"Promise me you won't go, then!"
"What are you thinking of, Stephen?"
"I don't know," he stammered, the question giving unexpected form
to his intention. "It's all in the air yet, of course; but I
picked up a tip the other day--"
"You're not speculating?" she cried, with a kind of superstitious
terror.
"Lord, no. This is a sure thing--I almost wish it wasn't; I mean
if I can work it--" He had a sudden vision of the
comprehensiveness of the temptation. If only he had been less
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane: bull you made of this thing!" began the officer.
He attempted low tones, but his indignation
caused certain of the men to learn the sense of
his words. "What an awful mess you made!
Good Lord, man, you stopped about a hun-
dred feet this side of a very pretty success! If
your men had gone a hundred feet farther you
would have made a great charge, but as it is
--what a lot of mud diggers you've got any-
way!"
The men, listening with bated breath, now
The Red Badge of Courage |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton: He lowered his head, staring at the black leaf-pattern
on the sunny path at their feet. "Mistakes are always
easy to make; but if I had made one of the kind you
suggest, is it likely that I should be imploring you to
hasten our marriage?"
She looked downward too, disturbing the pattern
with the point of her sunshade while she struggled for
expression. "Yes," she said at length. "You might want--
once for all--to settle the question: it's one way."
Her quiet lucidity startled him, but did not mislead
him into thinking her insensible. Under her hat-brim he
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