| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Youth by Joseph Conrad: pumping in every four is no joke--but it kept her afloat
as far as Falmouth.
"The good people there live on casualties of the sea,
and no doubt were glad to see us. A hungry crowd of
shipwrights sharpened their chisels at the sight of that
carcass of a ship. And, by Jove! they had pretty pick-
ings off us before they were done. I fancy the owner
was already in a tight place. There were delays. Then
it was decided to take part of the cargo out and calk her
topsides. This was done, the repairs finished, cargo re-
shipped; a new crew came on board, and we went out--
Youth |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Distinguished Provincial at Paris by Honore de Balzac: stockings; while beyond in the doorway, stood the priest who had
reconciled the dying actress with God, now about to return to the
church to say a mass for the soul of her who had "loved much,"--all
the grandeur and the sordid aspects of the scene, all that sorrow
crushed under by Necessity, froze the blood of the great writer and
the great doctor. They sat down; neither of them could utter a word.
Just at that moment a servant in livery announced Mlle. des Touches.
That beautiful and noble woman understood everything at once. She
stepped quickly across the room to Lucien, and slipped two thousand-
franc notes into his hand as she grasped it.
"It is too late," he said, looking up at her with dull, hopeless eyes.
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from La Grenadiere by Honore de Balzac: her, their letters must have been burned unread. It was Mme.
Willemsens' practice to throw all the letters which she received into
the fire, as if she meant that the time spent in Touraine should be
untroubled by any outside cares even of the slightest. She might have
come to the enchanting retreat to give herself up wholly to the joy of
living.
The three masters whose presence was allowed at La Grenadiere spoke
with something like admiring reverence of the touching picture that
they saw there of the close, unclouded intimacy of the life led by
this woman and the children.
The two little boys also aroused no small interest. Mothers could not
|
