| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Walter Scott: either to the present or to the future. For the passing day we
possess as much as we require, and we neither of us wish for
more; and for that which is to follow, we have, on this side of
the grave, neither hopes, nor fears, nor anxiety. We therefore
naturally look back to the past, and forget the present fallen
fortunes and declined importance of our family in recalling the
hours when it was wealthy and prosperous.
With this slight introduction, the reader will know as much of
Aunt Margaret and her nephew as is necessary to comprehend the
following conversation and narrative.
Last week, when, late in a summer evening, I went to call on the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle: murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no
robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads.
And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease,
and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been
woven round him.
"In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me
why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well
convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an
incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as
pressing in one house as in another.
"It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Cruise of the Jasper B. by Don Marquis: Cleggett! But this box, now----"
The great detective interrupted himself to laugh again, a trifle
complacently, Cleggett thought.
"I will not mystify you, Mr. Cleggett, about the box.
Mystification is one of the tricks of the older schools of
detection. I never practice it, Mr. Cleggett. With me, the
detection of crime is a business--yes, a business. I will tell
you presently how the box came into my possession."
"It IS in your possession?" Cleggett felt a dull pang of the
heart. If the box of Reginal Maltravers were in the hands of
Logan Black he could at least trade the other oblong box to Loge
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