| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Red Seal by Natalie Sumner Lincoln: "I cannot very well take Mrs. Brewster to a caf at this hour
without causing gossip."
"Oh, fiddle-sticks!" exclaimed Barbara. "I don't have to play
chaperon for you two. Every one knows she is visiting us; what's
there improper in your taking her out to supper? Why" - regarding
him critically -" she's young enough to be your daughter!"
"Go to your room!" There was nothing wheedling about McIntyre at
that instant; he was thoroughly incensed.
As Barbara sped out happy in having gained her way, she announced,
as a parting shot, "If you can be nasty to Helen; father, I can be
nasty, too."
The Red Seal |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: been followed with more exactness, and as few passages appeared
either insignificant or tedious, few have been either shortened or
omitted.
The dissertations are the only part in which an exact translation
has been attempted, and even in those abstracts are sometimes given
instead of literal quotations, particularly in the first; and
sometimes other parts have been contracted.
Several memorials and letters, which are printed at the end of the
dissertations to secure the credit of the foregoing narrative, are
entirely left out.
It is hoped that, after this confession, whoever shall compare this
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: third post-horse for which we pay though we never behold it. Madame
has the finest contralto voice in Europe, so say judges; but she has
never been heard to sing more than two or three times since she came
to Paris. She receives much company, but goes nowhere."
The Observer speaks, you will notice, as an Oracle. His words,
anecdotes, and quotations must be accepted as truths, under pain of
being thought without social education or intelligence, and of causing
him to slander you with much zest in twenty salons where he is
considered indispensable. The Observer is forty years of age, never
dines at home, declares himself no longer dangerous to women, wears a
maroon coat, and has a place reserved for him in several boxes at the
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