| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Jolly Corner by Henry James: qualify it) that sounds made while he was there alone sent back to
his ear or his fancy; and that, in the second, he imagined Alice
Staverton for the instant on the point of asking him, with a
divination, if he ever so prowled. There were divinations he was
unprepared for, and he had at all events averted enquiry by the
time Mrs. Muldoon had left them, passing on to other parts.
There was happily enough to say, on so consecrated a spot, that
could be said freely and fairly; so that a whole train of
declarations was precipitated by his friend's having herself broken
out, after a yearning look round: "But I hope you don't mean they
want you to pull THIS to pieces!" His answer came, promptly, with
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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: glanced at the daylight. "Under the circumstances, I am afraid
an inquest can hardly be avoided--these formalities are
necessary, but I beg that you won't distress yourselves."
There was a pause, and then Dr. Bauerstein drew two keys from his
pocket, and handed them to John.
"These are the keys of the two rooms. I have locked them and, in
my opinion, they would be better kept locked for the present."
The doctors then departed.
I had been turning over an idea in my head, and I felt that the
moment had now come to broach it. Yet I was a little chary of
doing so. John, I knew, had a horror of any kind of publicity,
 The Mysterious Affair at Styles |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: in Great Missenden. There were three stalls set up, SUB JOVE, for
the sale of pastry and cheap toys; and a great number of holiday
children thronged about the stalls and noisily invaded every corner
of the straggling village. They came round me by coveys, blowing
simultaneously upon penny trumpets as though they imagined I should
fall to pieces like the battlements of Jericho. I noticed one among
them who could make a wheel of himself like a London boy, and
seemingly enjoyed a grave pre-eminence upon the strength of the
accomplishment. By and by, however, the trumpets began to weary me,
and I went indoors, leaving the fair, I fancy, at its height.
Night had fallen before I ventured forth again. It was pitch-dark in
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