| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac: 15th."
"That's true; I am half-asleep still."
The cashier gave Birotteau a suspicious look as he left the room.
"If truth were banished from this earth, she would leave her last word
with a cashier," said du Tillet. "Haven't you some interest in this
little Popinot, who has set up for himself?" he added, after a
dreadful pause, in which the sweat rolled in drops from Cesar's brow.
"Yes," he answered, naively. "Do you think you could discount his
signature for a large amount?"
"Bring me his acceptances for fifty thousand francs, and I will get
them discounted for you at a reasonable rate by old Gobseck, who is
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen: "This is no locus docendi, it is true," began the clerical gentleman; "yet I
beg you earnestly to let us profit by your learning. Your reading in the
ancients is, sine dubio, of vast extent?"
"Oh yes, I've read a something, to be sure," replied the Councillor. "I like
reading all useful works; but I do not on that account despise the modern
ones; 'tis only the unfortunate 'Tales of Every-day Life' that I cannot
bear--we have enough and more than enough such in reality."
"'Tales of Every-day Life?'" said our Bachelor inquiringly.
"I mean those new fangled novels, twisting and writhing themselves in the dust
of commonplace, which also expect to find a reading public."
"Oh," exclaimed the clerical gentleman smiling, "there is much wit in them;
Fairy Tales |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from When the World Shook by H. Rider Haggard: learned afterwards, Bickley, after he was sure that I was asleep,
made a practice of tying a thread across my doorway and of
ascertaining at the dawn that it remained unbroken. But Oro was
not to be caught in that way. I suppose, as it was impossible for
him to pass through the latticework of the open side of the
house, that he undid the thread and fastened it again when he
left; at least, that was Bastin's explanation, or, rather, one of
them. Another was that he crawled beneath it, but this I could
not believe. I am quite certain that during all his prolonged
existence Oro never crawled.
At any rate, he came, or seemed to come, and pumped me--I can
When the World Shook |
