The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen: temper?"
"No, sir."
She longed to add, "But of his principles I have"; but her
heart sunk under the appalling prospect of discussion,
explanation, and probably non-conviction. Her ill opinion
of him was founded chiefly on observations, which,
for her cousins' sake, she could scarcely dare mention
to their father. Maria and Julia, and especially Maria,
were so closely implicated in Mr. Crawford's misconduct,
that she could not give his character, such as she
believed it, without betraying them. She had hoped that,
 Mansfield Park |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: was born at Naples, and as an infant accompanied them in their rambles.
I remained for several years their only child. Much as they were attached
to each other, they seemed to draw inexhaustible stores of affection from
a very mine of love to bestow them upon me. My mother's tender caresses
and my father's smile of benevolent pleasure while regarding me are my
first recollections. I was their plaything and their idol, and something
better--their child, the innocent and helpless creature bestowed on them
by heaven, whom to bring up to good, and whose future lot it was in
their hands to direct to happiness or misery, according as they
fulfilled their duties towards me. With this deep consciousness of
what they owed towards the being to which they had given life,
 Frankenstein |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories by Alice Dunbar: delighted small audiences in Annette's parlour, when the hostess
was in a perfect flutter of happiness. Not often, you know, for
the leading tenor was in great demand at the homes of society
queens.
"Do you know," said Annette, petulantly, one evening, "I wish for
the old days at Pass Christian."
"So do I," he answered tenderly; "will you repeat them with me
next summer?"
"If I only could!" she gasped.
Still she might have been happy, had it not been for Madame
Dubeau,--Madame Dubeau, the flute-voiced leading soprano, who
 The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories |