| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Emma by Jane Austen: a lady's character generally precedes her; and Highbury has long
known that you are a superior performer."
"Oh! no, indeed; I must protest against any such idea.
A superior performer!--very far from it, I assure you.
Consider from how partial a quarter your information came.
I am doatingly fond of music--passionately fond;--and my friends
say I am not entirely devoid of taste; but as to any thing else,
upon my honour my performance is mediocre to the last degree.
You, Miss Woodhouse, I well know, play delightfully. I assure you
it has been the greatest satisfaction, comfort, and delight to me,
to hear what a musical society I am got into. I absolutely cannot
Emma |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett: one's hopes satisfied in the riches of a good hill of potatoes. I
longed to go on; but it did not seem frugal to dig any longer after
my basket was full, and at last I took my hoe by the middle and
lifted the basket to go back up the hill. I was sure that Mrs.
Blackett must be waiting impatiently to slice the potatoes into the
chowder, layer after layer, with the fish.
"You let me take holt o' that basket, ma'am," said the
pleasant, anxious voice behind me.
I turned, startled in the silence of the wide field, and saw
an elderly man, bent in the shoulders as fishermen often are, gray-
headed and clean-shaven, and with a timid air. It was William. He
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Moran of the Lady Letty by Frank Norris: smoke, the charred ruins of the old Portuguese whaling-cabin,
where they had outfought the beach-combers.
For a moment Wilbur and Moran looked back without speaking. They
stood on the quarter-deck; in the shadow of the main-sail, shut
off from the sight of the schooner's crew, and for the instant
quite alone.
"Well, Moran, it's good-by to the old places, isn't it?" said
Wilbur at length.
"Yes," she said, her deep voice pitched even deeper than usual.
"Mate, great things have happened there."
"It doesn't look like a place for a Tong row with Chinese pirates,
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