| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Ebb-Tide by Stevenson & Osbourne: mumbo jumbo whose very name is forgotten, by some thick-witted
gentry whose very bones are lost. Then the island (witness
the Directory) has been twice reported; and since my tenancy,
we have had two wrecks, both derelict. The rest is conjecture.'
'Dr Symonds is your partner, I guess?' said Davis.
'A dear fellow, Symonds! How he would regret it, if he knew
you had been here!' said Attwater.
"E's on the Trinity 'All, ain't he?' asked Huish.
'And if you could tell me where the Trinity 'All was, you
would confer a favour, Mr Whish!' was the reply.
'I suppose she has a native crew?' said Davis.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Daughter of Eve by Honore de Balzac: those hearts devoted to narrow duties and entrenched behind pious
practices. Silent games of cards occupied the whole evening, and the
two young girls under the ban of that Sanhedrim enforced by maternal
severity, came to hate the dispiriting personages about them with
their hollow eyes and scowling faces.
On the gloom of this life one sole figure of a man, that of a music-
master, stood vigorously forth. The confessors had decided that music
was a Christian art, born of the Catholic Church and developed within
her. The two Maries were therefore permitted to study music. A
spinster in spectacles, who taught singing and the piano in a
neighboring convent, wearied them with exercises; but when the eldest
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: Nay, do not cry, papa," she said, kissing him.
"Do not cry either, my little Delphine. Look up and let me kiss
away the tears. There! I shall find my wits and unravel this
skein of your husband's winding."
"No, let me do that; I shall be able to manage him. He is fond of
me, well and good; I shall use my influence to make him invest my
money as soon as possible in landed property in my own name. Very
likely I could get him to buy back Nucingen in Alsace in my name;
that has always been a pet idea of his. Still, come to-morrow and
go through the books, and look into the business. M. Derville
knows little of mercantile matters. No, not to-morrow though. I
Father Goriot |
