| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: and whom he had sworn to cherish; there was she, who was better than
success.
It was Seraphina who restored him from the blow. She swam forward
and smiled upon her husband with a sweetness that was insultingly
artificial. 'Frederic,' she lisped, 'you are late.' It was a scene
of high comedy, such as is proper to unhappy marriages; and her
APLOMB disgusted him.
There was no etiquette at these small drawing-rooms. People came
and went at pleasure. The window embrasures became the roost of
happy couples; at the great chimney the talkers mostly congregated,
each full-charged with scandal; and down at the farther end the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: double----'
" 'No!' Gobseck broke in upon me. 'No! Why should I trust you any more
than you trust me?'
"I kept silence.
" 'And furthermore,' he continued, with a sort of good humor, 'you
will give me your advice without charging fees as long as I live, will
you not?'
" 'So be it; so long as there is no outlay.'
" 'Precisely,' said he. "Ah, by the by, you will allow me to go to see
you?' (Plainly the old man found it not so easy to assume the air of
good-humor.)
Gobseck |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: of proceeding would bring upon me. The governor sent me word that
my servant should be restored to me upon payment of sixty piastres;
and being answered by me that I had not a penny for myself, and
therefore could not pay sixty piastres to redeem my servant, he
informed me by a renegade Jew, who negotiated the whole affair, that
either I must produce the money or receive a hundred blows of the
battoon. Knowing that those orders are without appeal, and always
punctually executed, I prepared myself to receive the correction I
was threatened with, but unexpectedly found the people so charitable
as to lend me the money. By several other threats of the same kind
they drew from us about six hundred crowns.
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