| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart: disappeared shortly after Louise left and came home about nine
that night, muddy and tired. As for Thomas, he went around
dejected and sad, and I saw the detective watching him closely at
dinner. Even now I wonder--what did Thomas know? What did he
suspect?
At ten o'clock the household had settled down for the night.
Liddy, who was taking Mrs. Watson's place, had finished examining
the tea-towels and the corners of the shelves in the cooling-
room, and had gone to bed. Alex, the gardener, had gone heavily
up the circular staircase to his room, and Mr. Jamieson was
examining the locks of the windows. Halsey dropped into a chair
 The Circular Staircase |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: criminals, to the dying. The idea of reading the Gospel to
criminals, as Aline did, particularly fascinated Kitty. But all
these were secret dreams, of which Kitty did not talk either to
her mother or to Varenka.
While awaiting the time for carrying out her plans on a large
scale, however, Kitty, even then at the springs, where there were
so many people ill and unhappy, readily found a chance for
practicing her new principles in imitation of Varenka.
At first the princess noticed nothing but that Kitty was much
under the influence of her engouement, as she called it, for
Madame Stahl, and still more for Varenka. She saw that Kitty did
 Anna Karenina |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Alkahest by Honore de Balzac: CHAPTER III
The marriage took place at the beginning of the year 1795. Husband and
wife came to Douai that the first days of their union might be spent
in the patriarchal house of the Claes,--the treasures of which were
increased by those of Mademoiselle de Temninck, who brought with her
several fine pictures of Murillo and Velasquez, the diamonds of her
mother, and the magnificent wedding-gifts, made to her by her brother,
the Duke of Casa-Real.
Few women were ever happier than Madame Claes. Her happiness lasted
for fifteen years without a cloud, diffusing itself like a vivid light
into every nook and detail of her life. Most men have inequalities of
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