| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: It was dark when I saw Lanrivain's motor lamps at the cross-
roads--and I wasn't exactly sorry to see them. I had the sense
of having escaped from the loneliest place in the whole world,
and of not liking loneliness--to that degree--as much as I had
imagined I should. My friend had brought his solicitor back from
Quimper for the night, and seated beside a fat and affable
stranger I felt no inclination to talk of Kerfol. . .
But that evening, when Lanrivain and the solicitor were closeted
in the study, Madame de Lanrivain began to question me in the
drawing-room.
"Well--are you going to buy Kerfol?" she asked, tilting up her
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Twilight Land by Howard Pyle: with the young spendthrift following, wonder-struck, and there
the two sat themselves down. Then the old man smote his hands
together, and, in answer, ten young men and ten beautiful girls
entered bearing a feast of rare fruits and wines which they
spread before them, and the young man, who had been fasting since
morning, fell to and ate as he had not eaten for many a day.
The old man, who himself ate but little, waited patiently for the
other to end. "Now," said he, as soon as the young man could eat
no more, "you have feasted and you have drunk; it is time for us
to work."
Thereupon he rose from the couch and led the way, the young man
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: negation, an air of refusal, the discretion of locked doors--mere
impotence! Active discretion proceeds by affirmation. Suppose at the
club this evening I were to say: 'Upon my word of honor the golden-
eyed was not worth all she cost me!' Everybody would exclaim when I
was gone: 'Did you hear that fop De Marsay, who tried to make us
believe that he has already had the girl of the golden eyes? It's his
way of trying to disembarrass himself of his rivals: he's no
simpleton.' But such a ruse is vulgar and dangerous. However gross a
folly one utters, there are always idiots to be found who will believe
it. The best form of discretion is that of women when they want to
take the change out of their husbands. It consists in compromising a
The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
