| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Cousin Pons by Honore de Balzac: probable enough when it came out that the marriage had been broken off
simply on the pretext that Cecile was an only daughter. The Presidente
next dwelt artfully upon the advantage of adding "de Marville" to the
name of Popinot; and the immense dowry. At the present price fetched
by land in Normandy, at two per cent, the property represented nine
hundred thousand francs, and the house in the Rue de Hanovre about two
hundred and fifty thousand. No reasonable family could refuse such an
alliance. The Comte and Comtesse Popinot accepted; and as they were
now touched by the honor of the family which they were about to enter,
they promised to help explain away yesterday evening's mishap.
And now in the house of the elder Camusot, before the very persons who
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Contrast by Royall Tyler: up his eyes and said, "They play hocus pocus tricks
enough there, Got knows, mine friend."
JENNY
Well--
JONATHAN
So I went right in, and they shewed me away, clean
up to the garret, just like meeting-house gallery.
And so I saw a bower of topping folks, all sitting
round in little cabbins, "just like father's corn-cribs";
and then there was such a squeaking with the fiddles,
and such a tarnal blaze with the lights, my head was
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: class do you belong? Answer sincerely, and I will answer the
question you have put to me.
As I have not the honor of knowing you personally, and yet am
bound to you, in a measure, by the ties of poetic communion, I am
unwilling to offer any commonplace compliments. Perhaps you have
already won a malicious victory by thus embarrassing a maker of
books.
The young man was certainly not wanting in the sort of shrewdness
which is permissible to a man of honor. By return courier he received
an answer:--
To Monsieur de Canalis,--You grow more and more sensible, my dear
Modeste Mignon |
