| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Dynamiter by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Van De Grift Stevenson: my head, I do not care two straws for any side consideration.
It amuses me to do it, and let that suffice. On your side,
you may do what you please - let apartments, or keep a
private hotel; on mine, I promise you a full month's warning
before I return, and I never fail religiously to keep my
promises.'
The young man was about to renew his protest, when he
observed a sudden and significant change in the old lady's
countenance.
'If I thought you capable of disrespect!' she cried.
'Madam,' said Somerset, with the extreme fervour of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Death of the Lion by Henry James: stir of the air, the sense of an angel's having swooped down and
caught me to his bosom. He held me only till the danger was over,
and it all took place in a minute. With my manuscript back on my
hands I understood the phenomenon better, and the reflexions I made
on it are what I meant, at the beginning of this anecdote, by my
change of heart. Mr. Pinhorn's note was not only a rebuke
decidedly stern, but an invitation immediately to send him - it was
the case to say so - the genuine article, the revealing and
reverberating sketch to the promise of which, and of which alone, I
owed my squandered privilege. A week or two later I recast my
peccant paper and, giving it a particular application to Mr.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Massimilla Doni by Honore de Balzac: crime--"
"Doubts! Say proof positive, my lady!"
"I swear to you that I am innocent," replied Clarina.
"What, then, do I see in that bed?" asked the Duke.
"Old Ogre!" cried Clarina. "If you believe your eyes rather than my
assertion, you have ceased to love me. Go, and do not weary my ears!
Do you hear? Go, Monsieur le Duc. This young Prince will repay you the
million francs I have cost you, if you insist."
"I will repay nothing," said Emilio in an undertone.
"There is nothing due! A million is cheap for Clara Tinti when a man
is so ugly. Now, go," said she to the Duke. "You dismissed me; now I
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