| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy: In bed no sleep came to soothe her; that gentle thing being the
very middle-of-summer friend in this respect of flying away at the
merest troublous cloud. After lying awake till two o'clock an
idea seemed to strike her. She softly arose, got a light, and
fetched a Chess Praxis from the library. Returning and sitting up
in bed, she diligently studied the volume till the clock struck
five, and her eyelids felt thick and heavy. She then extinguished
the light and lay down again.
'You look pale, Elfride,' said Mrs. Swancourt the next morning at
breakfast. 'Isn't she, cousin Harry?'
A young girl who is scarcely ill at all can hardly help becoming
A Pair of Blue Eyes |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: makes a position humiliating. If you lie, you lower yourself at
once. She and her husband have lived apart for a long while.
Besides, how if I called upon that Alsatian to resign a wife whom
he cannot make happy?"
Rastignac's battle with himself went on for a long while; and
though the scruples of youth inevitably gained the day, an
irresistible curiosity led him, about half-past four, to return
to the Maison Vauquer through the gathering dusk.
Bianchon had given Vautrin an emetic, reserving the contents of
the stomach for chemical analysis at the hospital. Mlle.
Michonneau's officious alacrity had still further strengthened
Father Goriot |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas: hundred louis, only."
"So would I," said Porthos, unwilling to be behind
D'Artagnan in generosity; "I would give as much as a hundred
pistoles."
The two prisoners were at this point of their conversation
when Comminges entered, preceded by a sergeant and two men,
who brought supper in a basket with two handles, filled with
basins and plates.
"What!" exclaimed Porthos, "mutton again?"
"My dear Monsieur de Comminges," said D'Artagnan, "you will
find that my friend, Monsieur du Vallon, will go to the most
Twenty Years After |
