| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart: a suit-case ready for instant departure. But he held off too
long; he waited for something. My personal opinion is that he
waited to see Miss Gertrude before flying from the country.
Then, when he had shot down Arnold Armstrong that night, he had
to choose between two evils. He did the thing that would
immediately turn public opinion in his favor, and surrendered
himself, as an innocent man. The strongest thing against him is
his preparation for flight, and his deciding to come back after
the murder of Arnold Armstrong. He was shrewd enough to disarm
suspicion as to the graver charge?"
The evening dragged along slowly. Mrs. Watson came to my bedroom
The Circular Staircase |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: through religion, through faith in the future. Love explained to her
the mysteries of eternity. Her heart and the Gospel taught her to know
two worlds; she bathed, night and day, in the depths of two infinite
thoughts, which for her may have had but one meaning. She drew back
within herself, loving, and believing herself beloved. For seven years
her passion had invaded everything. Her treasuries were not the
millions whose revenues were rolling up; they were Charles's dressing-
case, the portraits hanging above her bed, the jewels recovered from
her father and proudly spread upon a bed of wool in a drawer of the
oaken cabinet, the thimble of her aunt, used for a while by her
mother, which she wore religiously as she worked at a piece of
Eugenie Grandet |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Talisman by Walter Scott: had been a human being. He then took forth a case of
instruments, and, by the judicious and skilful application of
pincers, withdrew from the wounded shoulder the fragment of the
weapon, and stopped with styptics and bandages the effusion of
blood which followed; the creature all the while suffering him
patiently to perform these kind offices, as if he had been aware
of his kind intentions.
"The animal may be cured," said El Hakim, addressing himself to
Sir Kenneth, "if you will permit me to carry him to my tent, and
treat him with the care which the nobleness of his nature
deserves. For know, that thy servant Adonbec is no less skilful
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