| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Elizabeth and her German Garden by Marie Annette Beauchamp: and create less sensation in doing it, than you would, Miss Minora,
if by any chance you got into the right-hand corner of one.
That you are put on a chair on the other side of the table places
you at once in the scale of precedence, and exactly defines your
social position, or rather your complete want of a social position."
And Irais tilted her nose ever so <216> little heavenwards.
"Note it," she added, "as the heading of your next chapter."
"Note what?" asked Minora impatiently.
"Why,'The Subtle Significance of Sofas', of course," replied Irais.
"If," she continued, as Minora made no reply appreciative of this suggestion,
"you were to call unexpectedly, the bad luck which pursues the innocent
Elizabeth and her German Garden |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories by Mark Twain: the portrait of his Majesty William III., King of Prussia--
is my fifth attempt in portraits, and my greatest success.
It has received unbounded praise from all classes of the community,
but that which gratifies me most is the frequent and cordial verdict
that it resembles the GALAXY portraits. Those were my first love,
my earliest admiration, the original source and incentive of my
art-ambition. Whatever I am in Art today, I owe to these portraits.
I ask no credit for myself--I deserve none. And I never take any,
either. Many a stranger has come to my exhibition (for I have had my
portrait of King William on exhibition at one dollar a ticket), and
would have gone away blessing ME, if I had let him, but I never did.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Under the Andes by Rex Stout: or Desiree.
We had sailed along thus without incident for upward of half
an hour, when my carelessness, or the darkness, nearly brought us
to grief. Suddenly, without warning, there was a violent jar and
the raft rebounded with a force that all but threw us into the
water. Coming to a bend in the stream, the current had dashed us
against the other bank.
But, owing to the flexibility of its sides, the raft escaped
damage. I had my oar against the wall instantly, shoving off, and
we swung round and caught the current again round the curve.
But that bend was to the left, as the other had been, which
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