| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson: and, returning to the loft, had the gratification to find two that
fitted pretty well. In one of the portmanteaux there was a
shagreen letter-case, which I cut open with my knife; and
thenceforth (so far as any credit went) the man was at my mercy.
Here was a vast deal of gallant correspondence, chiefly of his
Paris days; and, what was more to the purpose, here were the copies
of his own reports to the English Secretary, and the originals of
the Secretary's answers: a most damning series: such as to
publish would be to wreck the Master's honour and to set a price
upon his life. I chuckled to myself as I ran through the
documents; I rubbed my hands, I sang aloud in my glee. Day found
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Some Reminiscences by Joseph Conrad: tail-less coat and huge Cossack trousers, that being the livery
of the men about the stables. It must have been in 1864, but
reckoning by another mode of calculating time, it was certainly
in the year in which my mother obtained permission to travel
south and visit her family, from the exile into which she had
followed my father. For that, too, she had had to ask
permission, and I know that one of the conditions of that favour
was that she should be treated exactly as a condemned exile
herself. Yet a couple of years later, in memory of her eldest
brother who had served in the Guards and dying early left hosts
of friends and a loved memory in the great world of St.
Some Reminiscences |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton: bending one evening over the breadths of pearl-grey cashmere which
in spite of the dress-maker's prophetic vision of gored satin, had
been judged most suitable, when Evelina came into the room alone.
Ann Eliza had already had occasion to notice that it was a bad
sign when Mr. Ramy left his affianced at the door. It generally
meant that Evelina had something disturbing to communicate, and Ann
Eliza's first glance told her that this time the news was grave.
Miss Mellins, who sat with her back to the door and her head
bent over her sewing, started as Evelina came around to the
opposite side of the table.
"Mercy, Miss Evelina! I declare I thought you was a ghost,
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