| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac: Like the hunted beaver, I am to give up a part of my skin. After all,
it is better to be shorn than killed."
He went home smiling gaily, and his gaiety was genuine.
"I am saved," he said to Cesarine. "I am to have a credit with the
Kellers."
III
It was not until the 29th of December that Birotteau was allowed to
re-enter Adolphe's cabinet. The first time he called, Adolphe had gone
into the country to look at a piece of property which the great orator
thought of buying. The second time, the two Kellers were deeply
engaged for the whole day, preparing a tender for a loan proposed in
 Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson: betray him?"
"No, no, Alan," said James. "No, no: the habit he took off -- the
habit Mungo saw him in." But I thought he seemed crestfallen;
indeed, he was clutching at every straw, and all the time, I dare
say, saw the faces of his hereditary foes on the bench, and in
the jury-box, and the gallows in the background.
"Well, sir" says Alan, turning to me, "what say ye to, that? Ye
are here under the safeguard of my honour; and it's my part to
see nothing done but what shall please you."
"I have but one word to say," said I; "for to all this dispute I
am a perfect stranger. But the plain common-sense is to set the
 Kidnapped |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Case of the Golden Bullet by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: seemed perfectly innocent, and their suspicion that he might have
turned the key in pretense only, soon vanished. It would have been
a foolish suspicion anyway. If he were in league with the murderer,
he could have let the latter escape with much more safety during the
night. Horn let his eyes wander about the rooms again, and said
slowly: "Then the murderer is still here - or else - "
"Or else?" asked the doctor.
"Or else we have a strange riddle to solve."
Johann had laid the pistol down again. Muller stretched forth his
hand and took it up. He looked at it a moment, then handed it to
the commissioner. "We have to do with a murder here. There was
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