| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Case of the Golden Bullet by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: window-shutters, and the others gathered in the doorway. A single
look showed each of the men that the bed was untouched, and they
passed on through the room. The door from the bedroom to the study
stood open. In the latter room the shutters were tightly closed,
and the lamp had long since gone out. But sufficient light fell
through the open bedroom door for the men to see the figure of the
Professor seated at his desk, and when Johann had opened the
shutters, it was plain to all that the silent figure before them
was that of a corpse.
"Heart disease, probably," murmured the physician, as he touched
the icy forehead. Then he felt the pulse of the stiffened hand
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Ursula by Honore de Balzac: "Ta, ta, ta! now don't talk to me about that little lady-killer
Savinien. You'd pay too high a price for his name, and for that little
moustache curled up at the points like two hooks, and his black hair.
How do you expect to manage on seven thousand francs a year, with a
man who made two hundred thousand francs of debt in two years? Besides
--though this is a thing you don't know yet--all men are alike; and
without flattering myself too much, I may say that my Desire is the
equal of a king's son."
"You forget, madame, the danger your son is in at this moment; which
can, perhaps, be averted only by Monsieur de Portenduere's desire to
please me. If he knew that you had made me these unworthy proposals
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane: great things before the fight, but when the time
come they skedaddled."
"Oh, that's all true, I s'pose," replied the
other; "but I'm not going to skedaddle. The
man that bets on my running will lose his money,
that's all." He nodded confidently.
"Oh, shucks!" said the youth. "You ain't
the bravest man in the world, are you?"
"No, I ain't," exclaimed the loud soldier in-
dignantly; "and I didn't say I was the bravest
man in the world, neither. I said I was going to
The Red Badge of Courage |
