The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Man in Lower Ten by Mary Roberts Rinehart: dish smash all day."
"Euphemia is in bed," Mrs. Klopton said gravely. "Is your meat cut
small enough, Mr. Lawrence?" Mrs. Klopton can throw more mystery
into an ordinary sentence than any one I know. She can say, "Are
your sheets damp, sir?" And I can tell from her tone that the
house across the street has been robbed, or that my left hand
neighbor has appendicitis. So now I looked up and asked the
question she was waiting for.
"What's the matter with Euphemia?" I inquired idly.
"Frightened into her bed," Mrs. Klopton said in a stage whisper.
"She's had three hot water bottles and she hasn't done a thing all
 The Man in Lower Ten |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: marquis and Merle who were entering the room, she called to the Chouan
who followed them. "Pille-Miche!" she said, pointing to Mademoiselle
de Verneuil, "take her; she is my share of the booty, and I turn her
over to you--do what you like with her."
At these words the whole assembly shuddered, for the hideous heads of
Pille-Miche and Marche-a-Terre appeared behind the marquis, and the
punishment was seen in all its horror.
Francine was standing with clasped hands as though paralyzed.
Mademoiselle de Verneuil, who recovered her presence of mind before
the danger that threatened her, cast a look of contempt at the
assembled men, snatched the letter from Madame du Gua's hand, threw up
 The Chouans |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain: springs to the sultry borders of the Gulf; from the woody ridges
of the Alleghanies to the bare peaks of the Rocky Mountains--
a region of savannas and forests, sun-cracked deserts and
grassy prairies, watered by a thousand rivers, ranged by a
thousand warlike tribes, passed beneath the scepter of the Sultan
of Versailles; and all by virtue of a feeble human voice,
inaudible at half a mile.'
Chapter 3
Frescoes from the Past
APPARENTLY the river was ready for business, now. But no,
the distribution of a population along its banks was as calm
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