| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: public sorrows, to analyze them, to weigh them, estimate them, and
mark them out by rule? Where do these folk put aside their
hearts? . . . I do not know; but they leave them somewhere or other,
when they have any, before they descend each morning into the abyss of
the misery which puts families on the rack. For them there is no such
thing as mystery; they see the reverse side of society, whose
confessors they are, and despise it. Then, whatever they do, owing to
their contact with corruption, they either are horrified at it and
grow gloomy, or else, out of lassitude, or some secret compromise,
espouse it. In fine, they necessarily become callous to every
sentiment, since man, his laws and his institutions, make them steal,
The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: empty letter-bag behind the door and stamping the snow out of his boots.
"Nothing ready, of course, and everybody at the wedding by this time. I
heard the music as I passed. What are you doing? You're not dressed. You
can't go like that."
"Here they are--all ready for you on the table, and some warm water in the
tin basin. Dip your head in. Rosa, give your father the towel.
Everything ready except the trousers. I haven't had time to shorten them.
You must tuck the ends into your boots until we get there."
"Nu," said the Herr, "there isn't room to turn. I want the light. You go
and dress in the passage."
Dressing in the dark was nothing to Frau Brechenmacher. She hooked her
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Brother of Daphne by Dornford Yates: Suddenly something jumped in the wallflowers by Daphne, and she
started against her husband with a little scream. It was a toad.
I felt braver. We were not alone. But my pleasure was
shortlived. Berry's hand had been upon the skep and the jolt had
aroused the bees.
Uprose an angry murmur. I felt instinctively it was an angry
one.
My brother-in-law had the 'smoker' in his hand. They told me
afterwards that I had gone and given it him. That shows the
state I was in. I was not responsible for my actions.
With all speed he applied the nozzle to the mouth of the skep.
The Brother of Daphne |
