| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Marriage Contract by Honore de Balzac: When I said a hundred thousand francs I talked nonsense. Madame de
Gyas always declared that the necklace and ear-rings your father gave
me on our marriage day were worth at least that sum. My poor husband
was so lavish! Then my family diamond, the one Philip the Second gave
to the Duke of Alba, and which my aunt bequeathed to me, the
'Discreto,' was, I think, appraised in former times at four thousand
quadruples,--one of our Spanish gold coins."
Natalie laid out upon her mother's toilet-table the pearl necklace,
the sets of jewels, the gold bracelets and precious stones of all
description, with that inexpressible sensation enjoyed by certain
women at the sight of such treasures, by which--so commentators on the
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Summer by Edith Wharton: house. It was so dark that she could just discern a
group of a dozen people sitting or sprawling about a
table made of boards laid across two barrels. They
looked up listlessly as Mr. Miles and Charity came in,
and a woman's thick voice said: "Here's the preacher."
But no one moved.
Mr. Miles paused and looked about him; then he turned
to the young man who had met them at the door.
"Is the body here?" he asked.
The young man, instead of answering, turned his head
toward the group. "Where's the candle? I tole yer to
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Hated Son by Honore de Balzac: on which he saw that the mother's intelligent eye perceived, without
fully comprehending, the danger that threatened her son, he announced
his departure on the morning after the mass for her churching was
solemnized, under pretext of rallying his forces to the support of the
king.
Such were the circumstances which preceded and accompanied the birth
of Etienne d'Herouville. If the count had no other reason for wishing
the death of this disowned son poor Etienne would still have been the
object of his aversion. In his eyes the misfortune of a rickety,
sickly constitution was a flagrant offence to his self-love as a
father. If he execrated handsome men, he also detested weakly ones, in
|
