| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: nothing. His last letter had been all about a fumed-oak bookcase he had
bought for "our" books, and a "natty little hall-stand" he had seen, "a
very neat affair with a carved owl on a bracket, holding three hat-brushes
in its claws." How she had smiled at that! So like a man to think one
needed three hat-brushes! "From the Listening Ear," sang the voices.
"Once again," said Miss Meadows. "But this time in parts. Still without
expression." "Fast! Ah, too Fast." With the gloom of the contraltos
added, one could scarcely help shuddering. "Fade the Roses of Pleasure."
Last time he had come to see her, Basil had worn a rose in his buttonhole.
How handsome he had looked in that bright blue suit, with that dark red
rose! And he knew it, too. He couldn't help knowing it. First he stroked
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James: somehow, for a Cheltenham aunt, the school of evil, the abyss. I
deplored this prejudice at the time, and the deep injury of it was
now visible - first in the fact that it hadn't saved the poor boy,
who was clever, frail and foolish, from congestion of the lungs,
and second in the greater break with London to which the event
condemned me. I'm afraid that what was uppermost in my mind during
several anxious weeks was the sense that if we had only been in
Paris I might have run over to see Corvick. This was actually out
of the question from every point of view: my brother, whose
recovery gave us both plenty to do, was ill for three months,
during which I never left him and at the end of which we had to
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Lady Susan by Jane Austen: her to play and sing with some portion of taste and a good deal of
assurance, as she has my hand and arm and a tolerable voice. I was so much
indulged in my infant years that I was never obliged to attend to anything,
and consequently am without the accomplishments which are now necessary to
finish a pretty woman. Not that I am an advocate for the prevailing fashion
of acquiring a perfect knowledge of all languages, arts, and sciences. It
is throwing time away to be mistress of French, Italian, and German:
music, singing, and drawing, &c., will gain a woman some applause, but will
not add one lover to her list--grace and manner, after all, are of the
greatest importance. I do not mean, therefore, that Frederica's
acquirements should be more than superficial, and I flatter myself that she
Lady Susan |
