| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tono Bungay by H. G. Wells: vestry-ward. I produced my aunt and uncle a select group of
two. The effect in that shabby little house was one of
exhilarating congestion. The side-board, in which lived the
table-cloth and the "Apartments" card, was used for a display of
the presents, eked out by the unused balance of the
silver-printed cards.
Marion wore the white raiment of a bride, white silk and satin,
that did not suit her, that made her seem large and strange to
me; she obtruded bows and unfamiliar contours. She went through
all this strange ritual of an English wedding with a sacramental
gravity that I was altogether too young and egotistical to
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lemorne Versus Huell by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard: poured some milk, and held it over the gaslight till it was hot;
then I carried it up to Aunt Eliza.
"Here is your milk, Aunt Eliza. You have sent for me to help you,
and I begin with the earliest opportunity."
"I looked for you an hour ago. Ring the bell."
I rang it.
"Your mother is well, I suppose. She would have sent you, though,
had she been sick in bed."
"She has done so. She thinks better of my coming than I do."
The housekeeper, Mrs. Roll, came in, and Aunt Eliza politely
requested her to have breakfast for her niece as soon as possible.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe: more like her former self than ever she had done since her sickness;
and when he kissed her for the night, he said to Miss Ophelia,--"Cousin,
we may keep her with us, after all; she is certainly better;" and
he had retired with a lighter heart in his bosom than he had had there
for weeks.
But at midnight,--strange, mystic hour!--when the veil between
the frail present and the eternal future grows thin,--then
came the messenger!
There was a sound in that chamber, first of one who stepped
quickly. It was Miss Ophelia, who had resolved to sit up all night
with her little charge, and who, at the turn of the night, had
Uncle Tom's Cabin |
