| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Falk by Joseph Conrad: girl's marvellous, at her wonderful, at her regal
hair, plaited tight into that one astonishing and
maidenly tress. Whenever she moved her well-
shaped head it would stir stiffly to and fro on her
back. The thin cotton sleeve fitted the irreproach-
able roundness of her arm like a skin; and her very
dress, stretched on her bust, seemed to palpitate
like a living tissue with the strength of vitality ani-
mating her body. How good her complexion was,
the outline of her soft cheek and the small convo-
luted conch of her rosy ear! To pull her needle she
Falk |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Faith of Men by Jack London: swapping their warm furs for black bottles and broken time-pieces,
he took to his bed, said "Bless me" several times, and departed to
his final accounting in a rough-hewn, oblong box. Whereupon the
gamblers moved their roulette and faro tables into the mission
house, and the click of chips and clink of glasses went up from
dawn till dark and to dawn again.
Now Timothy Brown was well beloved among these adventurers of the
North. The one thing against him was his quick temper and ready
fist--a little thing, for which his kind heart and forgiving hand
more than atoned. On the other hand, there was nothing to atone
for Black Leclere. He was "black," as more than one remembered
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from La Grande Breteche by Honore de Balzac: given to the sheets that covered her, and I stood motionless, absorbed
in looking at her in a sort of stupor. In fancy I am there still. At
last her large eyes moved; she tried to raise her right hand, but it
fell back on the bed, and she uttered these words, which came like a
breath, for her voice was no longer a voice: "I have waited for you
with the greatest impatience." A bright flush rose to her cheeks. It
was a great effort to her to speak.
" ' "Madame," I began. She signed to me to be silent. At that moment
the old housekeeper rose and said in my ear, "Do not speak; Madame la
Comtesse is not in a state to bear the slightest noise, and what you
say might agitate her."
La Grande Breteche |
