| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lemorne Versus Huell by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard: "Oh, Sir, it is in the programme that I ride home from the
concert." And I prepared to step in.
"I shall sit on the box, then."
"But your nieces?"
"They are walking home, squired by a younger knight."
Aunt Eliza would say, I thought, "Needs must when a lawyer
drives"; and I concluded to allow him to have his way, telling him
that he was taking a great deal of trouble. He thought it would be
less if he were allowed to sit inside; both ways were unsafe.
Nothing happened. William drove well from habit; but James was
obliged to assist him to dismount. Mr. Uxbridge waited a moment at
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: in it, I found it less communicative than silence itself. I
wished to know why Ronalds had come; how he had found his way
without Rufe; and why, being on the spot, he had not
refreshed his title. She talked interminably on, but her
replies were never answers. She fled under a cloud of words;
and when I had made sure that she was purposely eluding me, I
dropped the subject in my turn, and let her rattle where she
would.
She had come to tell us that, instead of waiting for Tuesday,
the claim was to be jumped on the morrow. How? If the time
were not out, it was impossible. Why? If Ronalds had come
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy: startled ear.) "Since Edgar is come," he continued, "he might have
waited in till I got home, to ask me how she was, if only for a
compliment. I saw him go out; where is he gone?"
Mrs. Melbury did not know positively; but she told her husband
that there was not much doubt about the place of his first visit
after an absence. She had, in fact, seen Fitzpiers take the
direction of the Manor House.
Melbury said no more. It was exasperating to him that just at
this moment, when there was every reason for Fitzpiers to stay
indoors, or at any rate to ride along the Shottsford road to meet
his ailing wife, he should be doing despite to her by going
The Woodlanders |
