| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: occupied three bedrooms and a parlour; the other two bedrooms had
just been taken by the English fishermen who had passed me in the
road an hour ago in the mail-coach (oh! why had I not suspected
that treacherous vehicle?); and the landlord and his wife assured
me, with equal firmness and sympathy, that there was not another
cot or pair of blankets in the house. I believed them, and was
sinking into despair when Sandy M'Kaye appeared on the scene as my
angel of deliverance. Sandy was a small, withered, wiry man,
dressed in rusty gray, with an immense white collar thrusting out
its points on either side of his chin, and a black stock climbing
over the top of it. I guessed from his speech that he had once
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: "Yet a young friend of mine who travelled to England for the funeral of his
brother told me that women wore bodices in public restaurants no waiter
could help looking into as he handed the soup."
"But only German waiters," I said. "English ones look over the top of your
head."
"There," she cried, "now you see your dependence on Germany. Not even an
efficient waiter can you have by yourselves."
"But I prefer them to look over your head."
"And that proves that you must be ashamed of your bodice."
I looked out over the garden full of wall-flowers and standard rose-trees
growing stiffly like German bouquets, feeling I did not care one way or the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Wheels of Chance by H. G. Wells: circumstances--as, for instance, hats, baby linen, gloves, silks,
lace, or curtains--he would simply have bowed politely, and with
a drooping expression, and making a kind of circular sweep,
invited you to "step this way," and so led you beyond his ken;
but under other and happier conditions,--huckaback, blankets,
dimity, cretonne, linen, calico, are cases in point,--he would
have requested you to take a seat, emphasising the hospitality by
leaning over the counter and gripping a chair back in a spasmodic
manner, and so proceeded to obtain, unfold, and exhibit his goods
for your consideration. Under which happier circumstances you
might--if of an observing turn of mind and not too much of a
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