| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: Pere Grandet looked alternately at the deed and at his daughter, at
his daughter and at the deed, undergoing as he did so such violent
emotion that he wiped the sweat from his brow.
"My little girl," he said, "if, instead of signing this deed, which
will cost a great deal to record, you would simply agree to renounce
your rights as heir to your poor dear, deceased mother's property, and
would trust to me for the future, I should like it better. In that
case I will pay you monthly the good round sum of a hundred francs.
See, now, you could pay for as many masses as you want for anybody--
Hein! a hundred francs a month--in /livres/?"
"I will do all you wish, father."
Eugenie Grandet |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from End of the Tether by Joseph Conrad: pence for anything YOU can tell me."
He struck Sterne's arm away with a smart blow, and
catching hold of the handle pulled the door to. The
terrific slam darkened the cabin instantaneously to his
eye as if after the flash of an explosion. At once he
dropped into the chair. "Oh, no! You don't!" he
whispered faintly.
The ship had in that place to shave the bank so close
that the gigantic wall of leaves came gliding like a
shutter against the port; the darkness of the primeval
forest seemed to flow into that bare cabin with the odor
End of the Tether |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: nothing. His last letter had been all about a fumed-oak bookcase he had
bought for "our" books, and a "natty little hall-stand" he had seen, "a
very neat affair with a carved owl on a bracket, holding three hat-brushes
in its claws." How she had smiled at that! So like a man to think one
needed three hat-brushes! "From the Listening Ear," sang the voices.
"Once again," said Miss Meadows. "But this time in parts. Still without
expression." "Fast! Ah, too Fast." With the gloom of the contraltos
added, one could scarcely help shuddering. "Fade the Roses of Pleasure."
Last time he had come to see her, Basil had worn a rose in his buttonhole.
How handsome he had looked in that bright blue suit, with that dark red
rose! And he knew it, too. He couldn't help knowing it. First he stroked
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