| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Buttered Side Down by Edna Ferber: Disappointment curved Mary Louise's mouth. It was a lovely
enough mouth at any time, but when it curved in
disappointment--ell, janitors are but human, after all.
"Tell you what, though," said Charlie. "I'll let you up on
the roof. It ain't long on grassy spots up there, but say, breeze!
Like a summer resort. On a clear day you can see way over 's far
's Eight' Avenoo. Only for the love of Mike don't blab it to the
other women folks in the buildin', or I'll have the whole works of
'em usin' the roof for a general sun, massage, an' beauty parlor.
Come on."
"I'll never breathe it to a soul," promised Mary Louise,
Buttered Side Down |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: wish to pay your passage because--d'ye see, my boy?--in valuing your
jewels I estimated only the weight of the gold; very likely the
workmanship is worth something. So let us settle it that I am to give
you fifteen hundred francs--in /livres/; Cruchot will lend them to me.
I haven't got a copper farthing here,--unless Perrotet, who is
behindhand with his rent, should pay up. By the bye, I'll go and see
him."
He took his hat, put on his gloves, and went out.
"Then you are really going?" said Eugenie to her cousin, with a sad
look, mingled with admiration.
"I must," he said, bowing his head.
Eugenie Grandet |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Jolly Corner by Henry James: faced houses, which had begun to look livid in the dim dawn, had
they ever spoken so little to any need of his spirit? Great
builded voids, great crowded stillnesses put on, often, in the
heart of cities, for the small hours, a sort of sinister mask, and
it was of this large collective negation that Brydon presently
became conscious - all the more that the break of day was, almost
incredibly, now at hand, proving to him what a night he had made of
it.
He looked again at his watch, saw what had become of his time-
values (he had taken hours for minutes - not, as in other tense
situations, minutes for hours) and the strange air of the streets
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