| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Commission in Lunacy by Honore de Balzac: the name. Captain de Negrepelisse was ruined by the burning of all his
property, for the Protestants did not spare a friend of Montluc's.
"The Crown was unjust to M. de Negrepelisse; he received neither a
marshal's baton, nor a post as governor, nor any indemnity; King
Charles IX., who was fond of him, died without being able to reward
him; Henri IV. arranged his marriage with Mademoiselle d'Espard, and
secured him the estates of that house, but all those of the
Negrepelisses had already passed into the hands of his creditors.
"My great-grandfather, the Marquis d'Espard, was, like me, placed
early in life at the head of his family by the death of his father,
who, after dissipating his wife's fortune, left his son nothing but
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Commission in Lunacy by Honore de Balzac: scared looks, that Rastignac, catching sight of Bianchon's dejected
expression of humiliation through his uncle, could not help laughing,
and turned away. The Marquise bowed a greeting, and made a great
effort to rise from her seat, falling back again, not without grace,
with an air of apologizing for her incivility by affected weakness.
At this instant the person who was standing between the fireplace and
the door bowed slightly, and pushed forward two chairs, which he
offered by a gesture to the doctor and the judge; then, when they had
seated themselves, he leaned against the wall again, crossing his
arms.
A word as to this man. There is living now, in our day, a painter--
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: that Emilie, judging the man worthy of her, intended to delay
revealing her merits, so as to dazzle him suddenly when she found that
she pleased him. Every member of the family was curious to know what
this capricious creature thought of the stranger; but when, during
dinner, every one chose to endow Monsieur Longueville with some fresh
quality which no one else had discovered, Mademoiselle de Fontaine sat
for some time in silence. A sarcastic remark of her uncle's suddenly
roused her from her apathy; she said, somewhat epigrammatically, that
such heavenly perfection must cover some great defect, and that she
would take good care how she judged so gifted a man at first sight.
"Those who please everybody, please nobody," she added; "and the worst
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