| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tales of Unrest by Joseph Conrad: smiling amiably, or else very grave, within the impeccable shelter of
their black coats, stood by the side of women who, clustered in clear
summer toilettes, recalled all the fabulous tales of enchanted gardens
where animated flowers smile at bewitched knights. There was a
sumptuous serenity in it all, a thin, vibrating excitement, the
perfect security, as of an invincible ignorance, that evoked within
him a transcendent belief in felicity as the lot of all mankind, a
recklessly picturesque desire to get promptly something for himself
only, out of that splendour unmarred by any shadow of a thought. The
girl walked by his side across an open space; no one was near, and
suddenly he stood still, as if inspired, and spoke. He remembered
Tales of Unrest |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Kenilworth by Walter Scott: taste a stoup of liquor? I promise you that even in this poor
cell I have some in store."
"Speak not of it," said Tressilian, "but go on with thy story,
for my leisure is brief."
"You shall have no cause to rue the delay," said the smith, "for
your horse shall be better fed in the meantime than he hath been
this morning, and made fitter for travel."
With that the artist left the vault, and returned after a few
minutes' interval. Here, also, we pause, that the narrative may
commence in another chapter.
CHAPTER XI.
Kenilworth |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson: lugger was gone from its anchorage, and the Master (whether dead or
alive) now tumbling on the Irish Sea.
It is proper I should add in this place the very little I have
subsequently angled out upon the doings of that night. It took me
a long while to gather it; for we dared not openly ask, and the
freetraders regarded me with enmity, if not with scorn. It was
near six months before we even knew for certain that the man
survived; and it was years before I learned from one of Crail's
men, turned publican on his ill-gotten gain, some particulars which
smack to me of truth. It seems the traders found the Master
struggled on one elbow, and now staring round him, and now gazing
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