| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Study of a Woman by Honore de Balzac: recipient of a love-letter which was not intended for her. SECOND
MISTAKE: he did not call on Madame de Listomere for several days after
the adventure, thus allowing the thoughts of that virtuous young woman
to crystallize. There were other mistakes which I will here pass over
in silence, in order to give the ladies the pleasure of deducing them,
"ex professo," to those who are unable to guess them.
Eugene at last went to call upon the marquise; but, on attempting to
pass into the house, the porter stopped him, saying that Madame la
marquise was out. As he was getting back into his carriage the Marquis
de Listomere came home.
"Come in, Eugene," he said. "My wife is at home."
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Before Adam by Jack London: delayed me she did not run away very fast, but waited,
rather, for me to take up the pursuit again. Also, she
directed her retreat before me, going always in the
direction she wanted to go.
At last came the dark. She led me around the mossy
shoulder of a canyon wall that out-jutted among the
trees. After that we penetrated a dense mass of
underbrush that scraped and ripped me in passing. But
she never ruffled a hair. She knew the way. In the
midst of the thicket was a large oak. I was very close
to her when she climbed it; and in the forks, in the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: is counterfeit, it may justly lead you to suspect that of your
companions not to be sincere. Envy is commonly reciprocal. We are
long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found,
and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of
obtaining it for himself. In the assembly where you passed the
last night there appeared such sprightliness of air and volatility
of fancy as might have suited beings of a higher order, formed to
inhabit serener regions, inaccessible to care or sorrow; yet,
believe me, Prince, was there not one who did not dread the moment
when solitude should deliver him to the tyranny of reflection."
"This," said the Prince, "may be true of others since it is true of
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