| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lady Susan by Jane Austen: disagreeable, and now he is grown worse than ever. I would rather work for
my bread than marry him. I do not know how to apologize enough for this
letter; I know it is taking so great a liberty. I am aware how dreadfully
angry it will make mamma, but I remember the risk.
I am, Sir, your most humble servant,
F. S. V.
XXII
LADY SUSAN TO MRS. JOHNSON
Churchhill.
This is insufferable! My dearest friend, I was never so enraged before,
and must relieve myself by writing to you, who I know will enter into all
Lady Susan |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde: cards. Here is one of them. [Taking it from case.] 'Mr. Ernest
Worthing, B. 4, The Albany.' I'll keep this as a proof that your
name is Ernest if ever you attempt to deny it to me, or to
Gwendolen, or to any one else. [Puts the card in his pocket.]
JACK. Well, my name is Ernest in town and Jack in the country, and
the cigarette case was given to me in the country.
ALGERNON. Yes, but that does not account for the fact that your
small Aunt Cecily, who lives at Tunbridge Wells, calls you her dear
uncle. Come, old boy, you had much better have the thing out at
once.
JACK. My dear Algy, you talk exactly as if you were a dentist. It
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Breaking Point by Mary Roberts Rinehart: resolution nearly gave way when he saw her, small in her big chair
and pathetically patient. He told her the story as guardedly as
he could. He began with Dick's story to him, about his forgotten
youth, and went on carefully to Dick's own feeling that he must
clear up that past before he married. She followed him carefully,
bewildered a little and very tense.
"But why didn't he tell me?"
"He saw it as a sort of weakness. He meant to when he came back."
He fought Dick's fight for him valiantly, stressing certain points
that were to prepare her for others to come. He plunged, indeed,
rather recklessly into the psychology of the situation, and only
The Breaking Point |
