| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Mistress Wilding by Rafael Sabatini: no doubt be sending to Whitehall; and this mad fellow thundering after
them seemed in a fair way to mar their plan. As they reluctantly
passed the spot they had marked out for their ambush, splashed
through the ford and breasted the rising ground beyond, they took
counsel. They determined to stand and meet this rash pursuer.
Trenchard calmly opined that if necessary they must shoot him; he was,
I fear, a bloody-minded fellow at bottom, although, it is true he
justified himself now by pointing out that this was no time to
hesitate at trifles. Partly because they talked and partly because
the gradient was steep and their horses needed breathing, they
slackened rein, and the horseman behind them came tearing through the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Some Reminiscences by Joseph Conrad: was composed enough to perceive after some considerable time the
matchbox lying there on the mantelpiece right under my nose. And
all this was beautifully and safely usual. Before I had thrown
down the match my landlady's daughter appeared with her calm,
pale face and an inquisitive look, in the doorway. Of late it
was the landlady's daughter who answered my bell. I mention this
little fact with pride, because it proves that during the thirty
or forty days of my tenancy I had produced a favourable
impression. For a fortnight past I had been spared the
unattractive sight of the domestic slave. The girls in that
Bessborough Gardens house were often changed, but whether short
Some Reminiscences |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Pupil by Henry James: young ladies were not at all timid, but it was just the safeguards
that made them so candidly free. It was a houseful of Bohemians
who wanted tremendously to be Philistines.
In one respect, however, certainly they achieved no rigour - they
were wonderfully amiable and ecstatic about Morgan. It was a
genuine tenderness, an artless admiration, equally strong in each.
They even praised his beauty, which was small, and were as afraid
of him as if they felt him of finer clay. They spoke of him as a
little angel and a prodigy - they touched on his want of health
with long vague faces. Pemberton feared at first an extravagance
that might make him hate the boy, but before this happened he had
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