| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Island Nights' Entertainments by Robert Louis Stevenson: clothes and the bravest of the knick-knacks in the house. "For,"
said she, "we must seem to be rich folks, or who will believe in
the bottle?" All the time of her preparation she was as gay as a
bird; only when she looked upon Keawe, the tears would spring in
her eye, and she must run and kiss him. As for Keawe, a weight was
off his soul; now that he had his secret shared, and some hope in
front of him, he seemed like a new man, his feet went lightly on
the earth, and his breath was good to him again. Yet was terror
still at his elbow; and ever and again, as the wind blows out a
taper, hope died in him, and he saw the flames toss and the red
fire burn in hell.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Nada the Lily by H. Rider Haggard: set out here. Day by day he told some of it till it was finished. It
is not all written in these pages, for portions may have been
forgotten, or put aside as irrelevant. Neither has it been possible
for the writer of it to render the full force of the Zulu idiom nor to
convey a picture of the teller. For, in truth, he acted rather than
told his story. Was the death of a warrior in question, he stabbed
with his stick, showing how the blow fell and where; did the story
grow sorrowful, he groaned, or even wept. Moreover, he had many
voices, one for each of the actors in his tale. This man, ancient and
withered, seemed to live again in the far past. It was the past that
spoke to his listener, telling of deeds long forgotten, of deeds that
Nada the Lily |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie: after all. Shall we let bygones be bygones, eh? You're my heir,
you know; and in future I propose to make you an allowance--and
you can look upon Chalmers Park as your home."
"Thank you, sir, it's awfully decent of you."
"Where's this young lady I've been hearing such a lot about?"
Tommy introduced Tuppence.
"Ha!" said Sir William, eyeing her. "Girls aren't what they used
to be in my young days."
"Yes, they are," said Tuppence. "Their clothes are different,
perhaps, but they themselves are just the same."
"Well, perhaps you're right. Minxes then--minxes now!"
Secret Adversary |
