| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: Another peal of bells had begun to sound out at some distance off.
"I don't know!" said the landlady tartly. "Did you knock to ask that?"
"No; for lodgings," said Jude, coming to himself.
The householder scrutinized Sue's figure a moment. "We haven't any to let,"
said she, shutting the door.
Jude looked discomfited, and the boy distressed. "Now, Jude,"
said Sue, "let me try. You don't know the way."
They found a second place hard by; but here the occupier,
observing not only Sue, but the boy and the small children,
said civilly, "I am sorry to say we don't let where there
are children"; and also closed the door.
Jude the Obscure |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Schoolmistress and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov: where the master's family lived, the gates, the cellars, and the
porter's l odge. It was all shrouded in the darkness of night,
and only the four windows of one of the lodges which was let were
brightly lit up. The shadows of the coaches and sledges with
their shafts tipped upwards stretched from the walls to the
doors, quivering and cutting across the shadows cast by the
lantern and the players. . . . On the other side of the thin
partition that divided the coach-house from the stable were the
horses. There was a scent of hay, and a disagreeable smell of
salt herrings coming from old Nikandr.
The porter won and was king; he assumed an attitude such as was
The Schoolmistress and Other Stories |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Chita: A Memory of Last Island by Lafcadio Hearn: ebbed and came, according to season and circumstances, according
to luck or loss in the tilling of the sea. Viosca, the founder
of the settlement, always remained; he always managed to do well.
He owned several luggers and sloops, which were hired out upon
excellent terms; he could make large and profitable contracts
with New Orleans fish-dealers; and he was vaguely suspected of
possessing more occult resources. There were some confused
stories current about his having once been a daring smuggler, and
having only been reformed by the pleadings of his wife Carmen,--a
little brown woman who had followed him from Barcelona to share
his fortunes in the western world.
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