| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: Baudraye. "This morning I am rather puzzled as to how to find you any
new amusement; unless you would like to come to La Baudraye, where you
may study more of our provincial life than you can see here, for you
have made but one mouthful of my absurdities. However, the saying
about the handsomest girl in the world is not less true of the poor
provincial woman!"
"That little simpleton Gatien has, I suppose, related to you a speech
I made simply to make him confess that he adored you," said Etienne.
"Your silence, during dinner the day before yesterday and throughout
the evening, was enough to betray one of those indiscretions which we
never commit in Paris.--What can I say? I do not flatter myself that
The Muse of the Department |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: I sat on the couch. We had nothing to say to each other.
Over our heads the officer of the watch moved here and there.
Then I heard him move quickly. I knew what that meant.
He was making for the companion; and presently his voice was
outside my door.
"We are drawing in pretty fast, sir. Land looks rather close."
"Very well," I answered. "I am coming on deck directly."
I waited till he was gone out of the cuddy, then rose. My double moved too.
The time had come to exchange our last whispers, for neither of us was ever
to hear each other's natural voice.
"Look here!" I opened a drawer and took out three sovereigns.
The Secret Sharer |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Collection of Antiquities by Honore de Balzac: entrance with a buttress on either side, and a mighty shell on the
top. The same shell was repeated over the house-door.
The whole place was gloomy, close, and airless. The row of iron-gated
openings in the opposite wall, as you entered, reminded you of prison
windows. Every passer-by could look in through the railings to see how
the garden grew; the flowers in the little square borders never seemed
to thrive there.
The drawing-room on the ground floor was lighted by a single window on
the side of the street, and a French window above a flight of steps,
which gave upon the garden. The dining-room on the other side of the
great ante-chamber, with its windows also looking out into the garden,
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