| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Father Sergius by Leo Tolstoy: formed at the threshold. His hands trembled, and he could not
raise the hook of the tightly closed door.
'Oh, what are you doing? Let me in! I am all wet. I am frozen!
You are thinking about saving your soul and are letting me freeze
to death . . .'
He jerked the door towards him, raised the hook, and without
considering what he was doing, pushed it open with such force
that it struck her.
'Oh--PARDON!' he suddenly exclaimed, reverting completely to his
old manner with ladies.
She smiled on hearing that PARDON. 'He is not quite so terrible,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Touchstone by Edith Wharton: "I hope," he added, "you didn't give that as a reason, by the
way?"
"A reason?"
"For not going. A woman who gives reasons for getting out of
social obligations is sure to make herself unpopular or
ridiculous.
The words were uncalculated; but in an instant he saw that they
had strangely bridged the distance between his wife and himself.
He felt her close on him, like a panting foe; and her answer was a
flash that showed the hand on the trigger.
"I seem," she said from the threshold, "to have done both in
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Voice of the City by O. Henry: on the street, children had kept from under the wheels
of the street cars, cripples and fat men in negligee
shirts were scarce; nobody seemed to be inclined to
slip on banana peels or fall down with heart disease.
Even the sport from Kokomo, Ind., who claims to
be a cousin of ex-Mayor Low and scatters nickels
from a cab window, had not put in his appearance.
There was nothing to stare at, and William Pry had
premonitions of ennui.
But he saw a large crowd scrambling and pushing
excitedly in front of a billboard. Sprinting for it,
The Voice of the City |
