| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Hero of Our Time by M.Y. Lermontov: press her hand. . . I prayed, cursed, wept,
laughed. . . No, nothing could express my
anxiety, my despair! . . . Now that it seemed
possible that I might be about to lose her for ever,
Vera became dearer to me than aught in the
world -- dearer than life, honour, happiness! God
knows what strange, what mad plans swarmed in
my head. . . Meanwhile I still galloped, urging
on my horse without pity. And, now, I began to
notice that he was breathing more heavily; he
had already stumbled once or twice on level
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Europeans by Henry James: infinitely conscientious, the special operation of conscience
within him announced itself by several of the indications
of physical faintness.
The Baroness took her uncle's hand, and stood looking
at him with her ugly face and her beautiful smile.
"Have I done right to come?" she asked.
"Very right, very right," said Mr. Wentworth, solemnly. He had
arranged in his mind a little speech; but now it quite faded away.
He felt almost frightened. He had never been looked at in just
that way--with just that fixed, intense smile--by any woman;
and it perplexed and weighed upon him, now, that the woman
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: smiling.
"Yes, right, my boy," said the old man, gently. "I have had many
affairs in my day, but I beg you to believe that I too have loved, 'et
ego in Arcardia.' But I don't understand yet why you give lessons in
mathematics."
"My dear uncle, I am your nephew; isn't that as good as saying that I
had dipped into the capital left me by my father? After I had read
this letter a sort of revolution took place within me. I paid my whole
arrearage of remorse in one day. I cannot describe to you the state I
was in. As I drove in the Bois a voice called to me, 'That horse is
not yours'; when I ate my dinner it was saying, 'You have stolen this
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