| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Cousin Pons by Honore de Balzac: almost unconscious form upstairs. Remonencq and the agent went up with
her.
"He will be ill!" exclaimed the agent, anxious to make an end of the
piece of business which, according to him, was in progress.
"I should think he will!" returned Mme. Sauvage. "He has been crying
for twenty-four hours on end, and he would not take anything. There is
nothing like grief for giving one a sinking in the stomach."
"My dear client," urged the representative of the firm of Sonet, "do
take some broth. You have so much to do; some one must go to the Hotel
de Ville to buy the ground in the cemetery on which you mean to erect
a monument to perpetuate the memory of the friend of the arts, and
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: possible, and rushed toward the staircase; but upon the first step he
met Lord de Winter, who, seeing him pale, confused, livid, and stained
with blood both on his hands and face, seized him by the throat, crying,
"I knew it! I guessed it! But too late by a minute, unfortunate,
unfortunate that I am!"
Felton made no resistance. Lord de Winter placed him in the hands of
the guards, who led him, while awaiting further orders, to a little
terrace commanding the sea; and then the baron hastened to the duke's
chamber.
At the cry uttered by the duke and the scream of Patrick, the man whom
Felton had met in the antechamber rushed into the chamber.
 The Three Musketeers |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Commission in Lunacy by Honore de Balzac: chairs, two armchairs, a desk with a revolving front, an ordinary
office table, and on the chimney-shelf, a dingy clock and two old
candlesticks. The old man led the way for Popinot and his registrar,
and pulled forward two chairs, as though he were master of the place;
M. d'Espard left it to him. After the preliminary civilities, during
which the judge watched the supposed lunatic, the Marquis naturally
asked what was the object of this visit. On this Popinot glanced
significantly at the old gentleman and the Marquis.
"I believe, Monsieur le Marquis," said he, "that the character of my
functions, and the inquiry that has brought me here, make it desirable
that we should be alone, though it is understood by law that in such
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