| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Rezanov by Gertrude Atherton: Mexico. I will have none of them. I will marry
the man of my choice or no one. It may be that I
know naught of love. If you wish, you may think
that my choice of a husband is determined by ambi-
tion, that I am dazzled with the thought of court
life in St. Petersburg, of being the consort of a
great and wealthy noble. It matters not. Love or
ambition, I shall marry this Russian or I shall never
marry at all."
"Mother of God! Mother of God!" Don Jose's
face was purple. The veins swelled in his neck. He
Rezanov |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy: powerful adversary. Blakeney, with his most inane laugh and pleasant
good-nature, was solemnly patting him on the back.
"I am so demmed sorry. . ." he was saying cheerfully, "so very
sorry. . .I seem to have upset you. . .eating soup, too. . .nasty,
awkward thing, soup. . .er. . .Begad!--a friend of mine died once. . .
er. . .choked. . .just like you. . .with a spoonful of soup.
And he smiled shyly, good-humouredly, down at Chauvelin.
"Odd's life!" he continued, as soon as the latter had somewhat
recovered himself, "beastly hole this. . .ain't it now? La! you
don't mind?" he added, apologetically, as he sat down on a chair close
to the table and drew the soup tureen towards him. "That fool Brogard
The Scarlet Pimpernel |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Louis Lambert by Honore de Balzac: This "/you are doing nothing/!" was a pin-thrust that wounded Louis to
the quick. And then he never earned the rest of the play-time; he
always had impositions to write. The imposition, a punishment which
varies according to the practice of different schools, consisted at
Vendome of a certain number of lines to be written out in play hours.
Lambert and I were so overpowered with impositions, that we had not
six free days during the two years of our school friendship. But for
the books we took out of the library, which maintained some vitality
in our brains, this system of discipline would have reduced us to
idiotcy. Want of exercise is fatal to children. The habit of
preserving a dignified appearance, begun in tender infancy, has, it is
Louis Lambert |
