| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Another Study of Woman by Honore de Balzac: a rebellious whalebone, or looking whether her tucker is doing its
office of faithful guardian to two treasures of dazzling whiteness, or
glancing in the mirrors to see if her head-dress is keeping its place.
Her toilet is always in harmony with her character; she had had time
to study herself, to learn what becomes her, for she has long known
what does not suit her. You will not find her as you go out; she
vanishes before the end of the play. If by chance she is to be seen,
calm and stately, on the stairs, she is experiencing some violent
emotion; she has to bestow a glance, to receive a promise. Perhaps she
goes down so slowly on purpose to gratify the vanity of a slave whom
she sometimes obeys. If your meeting takes place at a ball or an
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Little Britain by Washington Irving: He was doomed, however, to share the unpopularity of his
family. He found his old comrades gradually growing cold and
civil to him; no longer laughing at his jokes; and now and then
throwing out a fling at "some people," and a hint about "quality
binding." This both nettled and perplexed the honest butcher;
and his wife and daughters, with the consummate policy of the
shrewder sex, taking advantage of the circumstance, at length
prevailed upon him to give up his afternoon's pipe and tankard
at Wagstaff's; to sit after dinner by himself, and take his pint
of
port--a liquor he detested--and to nod in his chair in solitary
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Under the Red Robe by Stanley Weyman: mess of broth and vegetables into it. Then he went to a
cupboard and brought out a loaf of black bread and a
measure of wine, and set them also on the table.
'You see it,' he said laconically.
'And a poor welcome!' I replied.
He flamed into sudden passion at that. Leaning with
both his hands on the table he thrust his rugged face
and blood-shot eyes close to mine. His moustachios
bristled, his beard trembled.
'Hark ye, sirrah!' he muttered, with sullen emphasis,
'be content! I have my suspicions. And if it were not
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