| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: gazed out at the Loire and the landscape, at anything rather than at
Lousteau. The journalist put on his most ingratiating tone, and talked
till they reached La Baudraye, where Dinah fled indoors, trying not to
be seen by any one. In her agitation she threw herself on a sofa and
burst into tears.
"If I am an object of horror to you, of aversion or scorn, I will go,"
said Lousteau, who had followed her. And he threw himself at her feet.
It was at this crisis that Madame Piedefer came in, saying to her
daughter:
"What is the matter? What has happened?"
"Give your daughter another dress at once," said the audacious
The Muse of the Department |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Life in the Iron-Mills by Rebecca Davis: cold. They reached the cellar at last. Old Wolfe had been
drinking since she went out, and had crept nearer the door. The
girl Janey slept heavily in the corner. He went up to her,
touching softly the worn white arm with his fingers. Some
bitterer thought stung him, as he stood there. He wiped the
drops from his forehead, and went into the room beyond, livid,
trembling. A hope, trifling, perhaps, but very dear, had died
just then out of the poor puddler's life, as he looked at the
sleeping, innocent girl,--some plan for the future, in which she
had borne a part. He gave it up that moment, then and forever.
Only a trifle, perhaps, to us: his face grew a shade paler,--
Life in the Iron-Mills |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: quenched in its intensest lustre. Another, so long ago as when
the famous Captain Smith visited these coasts, had seen it
blazing far at sea, and had felt no rest in all the intervening
years till now that he took up the search. A third, being
encamped on a hunting expedition full forty miles south of the
White Mountains, awoke at midnight, and beheld the Great
Carbuncle gleaming like a meteor, so that the shadows of the
trees fell backward from it. They spoke of the innumerable
attempts which had been made to reach the spot, and of the
singular fatality which had hitherto withheld success from all
adventurers, though it might seem so easy to follow to its source
Twice Told Tales |
