| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from To-morrow by Joseph Conrad: times in the town were smuggled rapidly across the
front garden under his canvas coat. Then, coming
out, he would remark apologetically, "It was only
a small kettle, my dear."
And, if not too tired with her drudgery, or wor-
ried beyond endurance by her father, she would
laugh at him with a blush, and say: "That's all
right, Captain Hagberd; I am not impatient."
"Well, my dear, you haven't long to wait now,"
he would answer with a sudden bashfulness, and
looking uneasily, as though he had suspected that
To-morrow |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Village Rector by Honore de Balzac: their nature and the lay of the land made suitable--held amid their
foliage a few fleecy vapors, born of the waters, which rose like a
slender smoke. The surface of the lakelet, clear as a mirror and calm
as the sky, reflected the tall green masses of the forest, the tops of
which, distinctly defined in the limpid atmosphere, contrasted with
the groves below wrapped in their pretty veils. The lakes, separated
by broad causeways, were three mirrors showing different reflections,
the waters of which flowed from one to another in melodious cascades.
These causeways were used to go from lake to lake without passing
round the shores. From the chalet could be seen, through a vista among
the trees, the thankless waste of the chalk commons, resembling an
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Long Odds by H. Rider Haggard: stand long. Before I could fire--before I could do more than get the
gun to my shoulder--he sprang straight up and out from the rock, and
driven by the impetus of that one mighty bound came hurtling through the
air towards me.
"Heavens! how grand he looked, and how awful! High into the air he
flew, describing a great arch. Just as he touched the highest point of
his spring I fired. I did not dare to wait, for I saw that he would
clear the whole space and land right upon me. Without a sight, almost
without aim, I fired, as one would fire a snap shot at a snipe. The
bullet told, for I distinctly heard its thud above the rushing sound
caused by the passage of the lion through the air. Next second I was
Long Odds |
