| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: collection. A pretty thing it would be, would it not, if my clients
were to set ME trudging all over Paris for half-a-dozen francs of
discount, when no man is my master, and I only pay seven francs in the
shape of taxes?
" 'The first bill for a thousand francs was presented by a young
fellow, a smart buck with a spangled waistcoat, and an eyeglass, and a
tilbury and an English horse, and all the rest of it. The bill bore
the signature of one of the prettiest women in Paris, married to a
Count, a great landowner. Now, how came that Countess to put her name
to a bill of exchange, legally not worth the paper it was written
upon, but practically very good business; for these women, poor
Gobseck |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Mansion by Henry van Dyke: smaller,
of gardens richer and poorer, but all full of beauty and delight.
They came into a kind of suburb, where there were many small
cottages,
with plots of flowers, very lowly, but bright and fragrant.
Finally they reached an open field, bare and lonely-looking.
There were two or three little bushes in it, without flowers,
and the grass was sparse and thin. In the center of the field
was a tiny hut, hardly big enough for a shepherd's shelter.
It looked as if it had been built of discarded things, scraps and
fragments of other buildings, put together with care and pains,
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Silas Marner by George Eliot: offence to you, madam," he added, bending to Mrs. Crackenthorp, who
sat by him, "I didn't know _you_ when you were as young as Miss
Nancy here."
Mrs. Crackenthorp--a small blinking woman, who fidgeted
incessantly with her lace, ribbons, and gold chain, turning her head
about and making subdued noises, very much like a guinea-pig that
twitches its nose and soliloquizes in all company indiscriminately--
now blinked and fidgeted towards the Squire, and said, "Oh, no--no offence."
This emphatic compliment of the Squire's to Nancy was felt by others
besides Godfrey to have a diplomatic significance; and her father
gave a slight additional erectness to his back, as he looked across
Silas Marner |
