| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Burning Daylight by Jack London: only ones?--that there is no question of my not wanting to know
you?"
"Then I'd go on urging like Sam Scratch," he said quickly.
"Because, you see, I've always noticed that folks that incline to
anything are much more open to hearing the case stated. But if
you did have that other reason up your sleeve, if you didn't want
to know me, if--if, well, if you thought my feelings oughtn't to
be hurt just because you had a good job with me..." Here, his
calm consideration of a possibility was swamped by the fear that
it was an actuality, and he lost the thread of his reasoning.
"Well, anyway, all you have to do is to say the word and I'll
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe: indeed); that is might be indeed that as she was abovestairs,
any fellow in a fright might find the door open and run in for
shelter when he was pursued, but that she knew nothing of it;
and if it had been so, he certainly went out again, perhaps at
the other door, for she had another door into an alley, and so
had made his escape and cheated them all.
This was indeed probable enough, and the justice satisfied
himself with giving her an oath that she had not received or
admitted any man into her house to conceal him, or protect or
hide him from justice. This oath she might justly take, and
did so, and so she was dismissed.
Moll Flanders |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells: Dim and wonderful is the vision I have conjured up in
my mind of life spreading slowly from this little seed bed
of the solar system throughout the inanimate vastness of
sidereal space. But that is a remote dream. It may be, on
the other hand, that the destruction of the Martians is only
a reprieve. To them, and not to us, perhaps, is the future
ordained.
I must confess the stress and danger of the time have left
an abiding sense of doubt and insecurity in my mind. I sit
in my study writing by lamplight, and suddenly I see again
the healing valley below set with writhing flames, and feel
War of the Worlds |
