| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Sarrasine by Honore de Balzac: not hope to enjoy at one and the same time the pure delights which
would make a maiden's love so sweet, and the passionate transports
with which one must purchase the perilous favors of an actress. He
reflected and resigned himself to his fate. The supper was served.
Sarrasine and La Zambinella seated themselves side by side without
ceremony. During the first half of the feast the artists exercised
some restraint, and the sculptor was able to converse with the singer.
He found that she was very bright and quick-witted; but she was
amazingly ignorant and seemed weak and superstitious. The delicacy of
her organs was reproduced in her understanding. When Vitagliani opened
the first bottle of champagne, Sarrasine read in his neighbor's eyes a
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Altar of the Dead by Henry James: when near. He was not often indeed so near as that a visit to it
hadn't perforce something of the patience of a pilgrimage; but the
time he gave to his devotion came to seem to him more a
contribution to his other interests than a betrayal of them. Even
a loaded life might be easier when one had added a new necessity to
it.
How much easier was probably never guessed by those who simply knew
there were hours when he disappeared and for many of whom there was
a vulgar reading of what they used to call his plunges. These
plunges were into depths quieter than the deep sea-caves, and the
habit had at the end of a year or two become the one it would have
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Whirligigs by O. Henry: saddled and tied to the hitching-post.
Now, in the feud business, in all sections of the country,
I have observed that in one particular there is a delicate
but strict etiquette belonging. You must not mention
the word or refer to the subject in the presence of a feudist.
It would be more reprehensible than commenting upon
the mole on the chin of your rich aunt. I found, later on,
that there is another unwritten rule, but I think that
belongs solely to the West.
It yet lacked two hours to supper-time; but in twenty
minutes Sam and I were plunging deep into the reheated
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