| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela: "Yes, of course, General, but they could do it some-
where else. You see, this sort of thing hurts our prestige,
and worse, our cause!"
Demetrio leveled his eagle eyes at Cervantes. He
drummed with his fingernails against his teeth, absent-
mindedly. Then:
"Come along, now, don't blush," he said. "You can
talk like that to someone else. We know what's mine is
mine, what's yours is yours. You picked the box, all
right; I picked my gold watch; all right too!"
His words dispelled any pretense. Both of them, in
The Underdogs |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Unconscious Comedians by Honore de Balzac: want to make their way--their railway--to-night at Carabine's."
Vauvinet conducted the three friends to the landing of the staircase,
cajoling Bixiou on the way. Bixiou kept a grave face till he reached
the outer door, listening to Gazonal, who tried to enlighten him on
his late operation, and to prove to him that if Vauvinet's follower,
Cerizet, took another twenty francs out of his four hundred and fifty,
he was getting money at forty per cent.
When they reached the asphalt Bixiou frightened Gazonal by the laugh
of a Parisian hoaxer,--that cold, mute laugh, a sort of labial north
wind.
"The assignment of the contract for that railway is adjourned,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Pierrette by Honore de Balzac: if the priest were resolved to marry his sister to Rogron (a far more
suitable marriage than that of Sylvie to the colonel) he could then
drive Sylvie in extreme devotion to the Church, and put Pierrette in a
convent. They might therefore lose eighteen months' labor in flattery
and meannesses of all sorts. Their minds were suddenly filled with a
bitter, silent hatred to the priest and his sister, though they felt
the necessity of living on good terms with them in order to track
their manoeuvres. Monsieur and Mademoiselle Habert, who could play
both whist and boston, now came every evening to the Rogrons. The
assiduity of the one pair induced the assiduity of the other. The
colonel and lawyer felt that they were pitted against adversaries who
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