| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Elizabeth and her German Garden by Marie Annette Beauchamp: or not regarded as the superior being she knows herself to be,
morbidly anxious lest the servants should, by some mistake, treat her
with offensive cordiality, pettish if the patient gives more trouble
than she had expected, intensely injured and disagreeable if he is made
so <177> courageous by his wretchedness as to wake her during the night--
an act of desperation of which I was guilty once, and once only.
Oh, these good women! What sane man wants to have to do with angels?
And especially do we object to having them about us when we are sick
and sorry, when we feel in every fibre what poor things we are,
and when all our fortitude is needed to enable us to bear our
temporary inferiority patiently, without being forced besides
Elizabeth and her German Garden |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Under the Andes by Rex Stout: it narrowed down again to a mere lane.
We were proceeding at a fairly rapid gait, keeping our eyes
strained ahead, when there appeared an opening in the right wall at
a distance of a hundred feet or so. Not having seen or heard
anything to recommend caution, we advanced without slackening our
pace until we had reached it.
I said aloud to Harry, "Probably a cross-passage," and then
jerked him back quickly against the opposite wall as I saw the real
nature of the opening.
It led to a small room, with a low ceiling and rough walls,
dark as the passage in which we stood, for it contained no light.
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Little Britain by Washington Irving: different cast, which tends to throw the sunshine of good-
humor over the whole neighborhood. It meets once a week at
a little old-fashioned house, kept by a jolly publican of the
name of Wagstaff, and bearing for insignia a resplendent half-
moon, with a most seductive bunch of grapes. The old edifice
is covered with inscriptions to catch the eye of the thirsty
wayfarer, such as "Truman, Hanbury, and Co.'s Entire," "Wine,
Rum, and Brandy Vaults," "Old Tom, Rum and Compounds,
etc." This indeed has been a temple of Bacchus and Momus
from time immemorial. It ha always been in the family of the
Wagstaffs, so that its history is tolerably preserved by the
|
