| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from One Basket by Edna Ferber: was not looking at the keys. Her head was screwed around over
her left shoulder and as she played she was holding forth
animatedly to a girl friend who had evidently dropped in from
some store or office during the lunch hour. Now and again the
fat man paused in his vocal efforts to reprimand her for her
slackness. She paid no heed. There was something gruesome,
uncanny, about the way her fingers went their own way over the
defenseless keys. Her conversation with the frowzy little girl
went on.
"Wha'd he say?" (Over her shoulder.)
"Oh, he laffed."
One Basket |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Whirligigs by O. Henry: a man who handled mountains as croquettes, and built
tunnels in the air; a man who never uttered a word
of silly nonsense in his life. Did you sign those lease-
renewal applications yet, madama? They've got to be
on file in the land office by the thirty-first."
Teddy turned his head lazily. Octavia's chair was
vacant.
A certain centipede, crawling along the lines marked
out by fate, expounded the situation. It was early one
morning while Octavia and Mrs. Maclntyre were trim-
ming the honeysuckle on the west gallery. Teddy had
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde: has given them an idea, whether one is serious or not. Nothing is
serious except passion. The intellect is not a serious thing, and
never has been. It is an instrument on which one plays, that is
all. The only serious form of intellect I know is the British
intellect. And on the British intellect the illiterates play the
drum.
LADY HUNSTANTON. What are you saying, Lord Illingworth, about the
drum?
LORD ILLINGWORTH. I was merely talking to Mrs. Allonby about the
leading articles in the London newspapers.
LADY HUNSTANTON. But do you believe all that is written in the
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