The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: "I shall be with you at three o'clock this afternoon--and must be off again
this evening. All news when we meet. I hope you are happier than I.--
CASIMIR."
"Huh! how kind!" she sneered; "how condescending. Too good of you,
really!" She sprang to her feet, crumbling the letter in her hands. "And
how are you to know that I shall stick here awaiting your pleasure until
three o'clock this afternoon?" But she knew she would; her rage was only
half sincere. She longed to see Casimir, for she was confident that this
time she would make him understand the situation..."For, as it is, it's
intolerable--intolerable!" she muttered.
It was ten o'clock in the morning of a grey day curiously lighted by pale
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from In the Cage by Henry James: that--denoted on the contrary an embarrassment, an indecision,
something of a desire not so much to be helped as to be treated
rather more nicely than she had treated him the other time. Yes,
he considered quite probably that he had help rather to offer than
to ask for. Still, none the less, when he again saw her free he
continued to keep away from her; when he came back with his thumbed
Guide it was Mr. Buckton he caught--it was from Mr. Buckton he
obtained half-a-crown's-worth of stamps.
After asking for the stamps he asked, quite as a second thought,
for a postal-order for ten shillings. What did he want with so
many stamps when he wrote so few letters? How could he enclose a
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Country Doctor by Honore de Balzac: coins, "and that is for the children," he went on, as he added another
crown. "Is M. Benassis' house still a long way off?" he asked, when he
had mounted his horse.
"Oh! no, sir, a bare league at most."
The commandant set out, fully persuaded that two leagues remained
ahead of him. Yet after all he soon caught a glimpse through the trees
of the little town's first cluster of houses, and then of all the
roofs that crowded about a conical steeple, whose slates were secured
to the angles of the wooden framework by sheets of tin that glittered
in the sun. This sort of roof, which has a peculiar appearance,
denotes the nearness of the borders of Savoy, where it is very common.
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