| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Pierrette by Honore de Balzac: curves of her beautiful figure were exquisite. The roundness of her
throat, the purity of its lines, the wealth of her golden hair, the
charming grace of her smile, the distinguished carriage of her head,
the character of her features, the fine eyes finely placed beneath a
well-formed brow, her every motion, noble and high-bred, and her light
and graceful figure,--all were in harmony. Her hands were beautiful,
and her feet slender. Health gave her, perhaps, too much the look of a
handsome barmaid. "But that can't be a defect in the eyes of a
Rogron," sighed Madame Tiphaine. Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf's dress
when she made her first appearance in Provins at the Rogrons' house
was very simple. Her brown merino gown edged with green embroidery was
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Jolly Corner by Henry James: on the lowest stair; in which position he felt as never before the
air chilled by his logic. He himself turned cold in it, for he
seemed of a sudden to know what now was involved. "Harder pressed?
- yes, he takes it in, with its thus making clear to him that I've
come, as they say, 'to stay.' He finally doesn't like and can't
bear it, in the sense, I mean, that his wrath, his menaced
interest, now balances with his dread. I've hunted him till he has
'turned'; that, up there, is what has happened - he's the fanged or
the antlered animal brought at last to bay." There came to him, as
I say - but determined by an influence beyond my notation! - the
acuteness of this certainty; under which however the next moment he
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Merry Men by Robert Louis Stevenson: detach him from his train of thought beyond a moment. He
condescended, indeed, to ask me some questions as to my success at
college, but I thought it was with half his mind; and even in his
extempore grace, which was, as usual, long and wandering, I could
find the trace of his preoccupation, praying, as he did, that God
would 'remember in mercy fower puir, feckless, fiddling, sinful
creatures here by their lee-lane beside the great and dowie
waters.'
Soon there came an interchange of speeches between him and Rorie.
'Was it there?' asked my uncle.
'Ou, ay!' said Rorie.
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