| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from St. Ives by Robert Louis Stevenson: you may justify. I told them there was nothing against you beyond
the fact that you were put to the haw (if that is the right word)
for debt.'
'I pray God you have the expression incorrectly, ma'am,' said I.
'I do not give myself out for a person easily alarmed; but you must
admit there is something barbarous and mediaeval in the sound well
qualified to startle a poor foreigner.'
'It is the name of a process in Scots Law, and need alarm no honest
man,' said she. 'But you are a very idle-minded young gentleman;
you must still have your joke, I see: I only hope you will have no
cause to regret it.'
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde: about the good temper of most modern men. I wonder we women stand
it as well as we do.
LADY STUTFIELD. Yes; men's good temper shows they are not so
sensitive as we are, not so finely strung. It makes a great
barrier often between husband and wife, does it not? But I would
so much like to know what was the wrong thing Mr. Allonby did.
MRS. ALLONBY. Well, I will tell you, if you solemnly promise to
tell everybody else.
LADY STUTFIELD. Thank you, thank you. I will make a point of
repeating it.
MRS. ALLONBY. When Ernest and I were engaged, he swore to me
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Research Magnificent by H. G. Wells: to stop a clock that is striking unwarrantably and amazingly. He
was going to stop it because it annoyed his sense of human dignity.
White hesitated for a moment and then followed, crying "Benham!"
But there was no arresting this last outbreak of Benham's all too
impatient kingship. He pushed aside a ducking German waiter who was
peeping through the glass doors, and rushed out of the hotel. With
a gesture of authority he ran forward into the middle of the street,
holding up his hand, in which he still held his dinner napkin
clenched like a bomb. White believes firmly that Benham thought he
would be able to dominate everytt up. I will sit here a moment and
pull myself together. Perhaps I'm--I must be shot. But it seemed
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