| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Cousin Betty by Honore de Balzac: who is so like him, that to me he is insufferable. Unless you prefer
to settle twelve hundred francs a year on Stanislas--the capital to be
his, and the life-interest payable to me, of course--"
"But if I am to settle securities, I would rather it should be on my
own son, and not on the monstrosity," said the Baron.
This rash speech, in which the words "my own son" came out as full as
a river in flood, was, by the end of the hour, ratified as a formal
promise to settle twelve hundred francs a year on the future boy. And
this promise became, on Valerie's tongue and in her countenance, what
a drum is in the hands of a child; for three weeks she played on it
incessantly.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Dynamiter by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Van De Grift Stevenson: nothing left to change except my manners.'
'Oh no,' said Desborough. 'Oh pray not! I - madam - '
'I am,' interrupted the lady, 'the Senorita Teresa Valdevia.
The evening air grows chill. Adios, Senorito.' And before
Harry could stammer out a word, she had disappeared into her
room.
He stood transfixed, the cigarette still unlighted in his
hand. His thoughts had soared above tobacco, and still
recalled and beautified the image of his new acquaintance.
Her voice re-echoed in his memory; her eyes, of which he
could not tell the colour, haunted his soul. The clouds had
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne: a miracle of holiness. They fancied him the mouth-piece of
Heaven's messages of wisdom, and rebuke, and love. In their
eyes, the very ground on which he trod was sanctified. The
virgins of his church grew pale around him, victims of a passion
so imbued with religious sentiment, that they imagined it to be
all religion, and brought it openly, in their white bosoms, as
their most acceptable sacrifice before the altar. The aged
members of his flock, beholding Mr. Dimmesdale's frame so
feeble, while they were themselves so rugged in their infirmity,
believed that he would go heavenward before them, and enjoined it
upon their children that their old bones should be buried close
The Scarlet Letter |
