| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Simple Soul by Gustave Flaubert: The town clock struck two.
The parlour of the convent would not open until morning, and surely a
delay would annoy Madame, so, in spite of her desire to see the other
child, she went home. The maids of the inn were just arising when she
reached Pont-l'Eveque.
So the poor boy would be on the ocean for months! His previous trips
had not alarmed her. One can come back from England and Brittany; but
America, the colonies, the islands, were all lost in an uncertain
region at the very end of the world.
From that time on, Felicite thought solely of her nephew. On warm days
she feared he would suffer from thirst, and when it stormed, she was
A Simple Soul |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Arrow of Gold by Joseph Conrad: is insensible."
I watched her profile against the pillow and there came on her face
an expression I knew well when with an indignation full of
suppressed laughter she used to throw at me the word "Imbecile." I
expected it to come, but it didn't come. I must say, though, that
I was swimmy in my head and now and then had a noise as of the sea
in my ears, so I might not have heard it. The woman of granite,
built to last for ever, continued to look at the glowing logs which
made a sort of fiery ruin on the white pile of ashes. "I will tell
you how it is," I said. "When I have you before my eyes there is
such a projection of my whole being towards you that I fail to see
The Arrow of Gold |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Straight Deal by Owen Wister: my admiration for his book.
"Oh."
That was the whole of his reply. It made me laugh at myself, for I should
have known better. I had often been in England and could have told
anybody that you mustn't too abruptly or obviously refer to what the
other fellow does, still less to what you do yourself. "It isn't done."
It's a sort of indecent exposure. It's one of the invasions of the right
to privacy.
In America, not everywhere but in many places, a man upon entering a club
and seeing a friend across the room, will not hesitate to call out to
him, "Hullo, Jack!" or "Hullo, George!" or whatever. In England "it
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