| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Coxon Fund by Henry James: had sprinkled us as refreshingly as the waters we were even then to
feel about our ears. Kent Mulville had been up to his room, but
had come back with a face that told as few tales as I had seen it
succeed in telling on the evening I waited in the lecture-room with
Miss Anvoy. I said to myself that our friend had gone out, but it
was a comfort that the presence of a comparative stranger deprived
us of the dreary duty of suggesting to each other, in respect of
his errand, edifying possibilities in which we didn't ourselves
believe. At ten o'clock he came into the drawing-room with his
waistcoat much awry but his eyes sending out great signals. It was
precisely with his entrance that I ceased to be vividly conscious
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie: "But that has already been tested!" I cried, stupefied. "Dr.
Bauerstein had it tested, and you yourself laughed at the
possibility of there being strychnine in it."
"I know Dr. Bauerstein had it tested," replied Poirot quietly.
"Well, then?"
"Well, I have a fancy for having it analysed again, that is all."
And not another word on the subject could I drag out of him.
This proceeding of Poirot's, in respect of the coco, puzzled me
intensely. I could see neither rhyme nor reason in it. However,
my confidence in him, which at one time had rather waned, was
fully restored since his belief in Alfred Inglethorp's innocence
The Mysterious Affair at Styles |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: painted it as it is.
The graceful brown-eyed boy who showed us the house seemed also to
belong to one of Titian's pictures. As we were going away, the
Deacon, for lack of copper, rewarded him with a little silver
piece, a half-lira, in value about ten cents. A celestial rapture
of surprise spread over the child's face, and I know not what
blessings he invoked upon us. He called his companions to rejoice
with him, and we left them clapping their hands and dancing.
Driving after one has dined has always a peculiar charm. The
motion seems pleasanter, the landscape finer than in the morning
hours. The road from Cadore ran on a high level, through sloping
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