| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton: secret of his triumph perhaps due to those long hard unrewarded
years, the steadfast scorn of popularity, the indifference to
every kind of material ease in which his wife had so gaily
abetted him? Had it been bought at the cost of her own
freshness and her own talent, of the children's "advantages," of
everything except the closeness of the tie between husband and
wife? Well--it was worth the price, no doubt; but what if, now
that honours and prosperity had come, the tie were snapped, and
Grace were left alone among the ruins?
There was nothing in her tone or words to suggest such a
possibility. Susy noticed that her ill-assorted raiment was
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: The two friends accepted, and the landlord went out by a door through
the kitchen to his cellar, situated, no doubt, under this portion of
the building. When five venerable bottles which he presently brought
back with him appeared on the table, the wife brought in the rest of
the supper. She gave to the dishes and to the room generally the
glance of a mistress, and then, sure of having attended to all the
wants of the travellers, she returned to the kitchen.
The four men, for the landlord was invited to drink, did not hear her
go to bed, but later, during the intervals of silence which came into
their talk, certain strongly accentuated snores, made the more
sonorous by the thin planks of the loft in which she had ensconced
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Don Quixote by Miquel de Cervantes: answer; but as to the question whether this is a pack-saddle or a
caparison I will not venture to give a positive opinion, but will
leave it to your worships' better judgment. Perhaps as you are not
dubbed knights like myself, the enchantments of this place have
nothing to do with you, and your faculties are unfettered, and you can
see things in this castle as they really and truly are, and not as
they appear to me."
"There can be no question," said Don Fernando on this, "but that
Senor Don Quixote has spoken very wisely, and that with us rests the
decision of this matter; and that we may have surer ground to go on, I
will take the votes of the gentlemen in secret, and declare the result
Don Quixote |
