| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac: at this hour when the negotiations about the Madeleine were going on,
Birotteau, in spite of his extreme confidence, felt uneasy. The
excited manner of du Tillet seemed the sign of a discussion. "Can he
be in it?" thought Cesar, with a flash of commercial prudence. The
suspicion passed like lightning through his mind. He looked again and
saw Madame Roguin, and the presence of du Tillet was no longer
suspicious. "Still, suppose Constance were right?" he said to himself.
"What a fool I am to listen to women's notions! I'll speak of it to my
uncle Pillerault this morning; it is only a step from the Cour Batave,
where Monsieur Molineux lives, to the Rue des Bourdonnais."
A cautious observer, or a merchant who had met with swindlers in his
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Study of a Woman by Honore de Balzac: perhaps, not to show that they envy it. However, he replied with
tolerable self-possession:--
"Why not, madame?"
Such are the blunders we all make at twenty-five.
This speech caused a violent commotion in Madame de Listomere's bosom;
but Rastignac did not yet know how to analyze a woman's face by a
rapid or sidelong glance. The lips of the marquise paled, but that was
all. She rang the bell for wood, and so constrained Rastignac to rise
and take his leave.
"If that be so," said the marquise, stopping Eugene with a cold and
rigid manner, "you will find it difficult to explain, monsieur, why
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey: "Lie down to rest," said Edwards.
"Oh, I can't. Matters look so black."
"You're tired out and discouraged. You'll feel better to-morrow. The situation
is not, perhaps, so hopeless. The presence of these frontiersmen should
encourage us."
"What will they do? What can they do?" cried Heckewelder, bitterly. "I tell
you never before have I encountered such gloomy, stony Indians. It seems to me
that they are in no vacillating state. They act like men whose course is
already decided upon, and who are only waiting."
"For what?" asked Jim, after a long silence.
"God only knows! Perhaps for a time; possibly for a final decision, and, it
The Spirit of the Border |
