| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson: to a glass of wine. Enthusiasm is very wearing; and I begin to
understand why prophets were unpopular in Judaea, where they were
best known. For three stricken hours did this excellent young man
sit beside us to dilate on boats and boat-races; and before he
left, he was kind enough to order our bedroom candles.
We endeavoured now and again to change the subject; but the
diversion did not last a moment: the Royal Nautical Sportsman
bridled, shied, answered the question, and then breasted once more
into the swelling tide of his subject. I call it his subject; but
I think it was he who was subjected. The ARETHUSA, who holds all
racing as a creature of the devil, found himself in a pitiful
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton: down the long flight, across the great resounding vestibule and
out into the darkness of the calle.
Strefford caught up with her, and they stood a moment silent in
the night.
"Susy--what the devil's the matter?"
"The matter? Can't you see? That I'm tired, that I've got a
splitting headache--that you bore me to death, one and all of
you!" She turned and laid a deprecating hand on his arm.
"Streffy, old dear, don't mind me: but for God's sake find a
gondola and send me home."
"Alone?"
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: peculiarities, I rather liked the flavour of them; and then, in
addition, the landlady's daughter, who was managing the house, was
a person of most engaging manners, and there was trout and grayling
fishing in a stream near by, and the neighbouring church of Dolsach
contained the beautiful picture of the Holy Family, which Franz
Defregger painted for his native village.
The peasant women of Lienz have one very striking feature in their
dress--a black felt hat with a broad, stiff brim and a high crown,
smaller at the top than at the base. It looks a little like the
traditional head-gear of the Pilgrim Fathers, exaggerated. There
is a solemnity about it which is fatal to feminine beauty.
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