| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Chita: A Memory of Last Island by Lafcadio Hearn: fluttered with an emotion more puissant than the excitement of
the dance;--young eyes betrayed the happy secret discreeter lips
would have preserved. Slave-servants circled through the
aristocratic press, bearing dainties and wines, praying
permission to pass in terms at once humble and officious,--always
in the excellent French which well-trained house-servants were
taught to use on such occasions.
... Night wore on: still the shining floor palpitated to the
feet of the dancers; still the piano-forte pealed, and still the
violins sang,--and the sound of their singing shrilled through
the darkness, in gasps of the gale, to the ears of Captain Smith,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Second Home by Honore de Balzac: court of justice must not have to blush in the presence of his son.
Good-bye."
PARIS, February 1830-January 1842.
ADDENDUM
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.
Beaumesnil, Mademoiselle
The Middle Classes
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
Bianchon, Horace
Father Goriot
The Atheist's Mass
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Ursula by Honore de Balzac: by Goupil's confession.
"You see, my child, that God was not against you," said the abbe.
Minoret came home late from Rouvre. About nine o'clock he was sitting
in the Chinese pagoda digesting his dinner beside his wife, with whom
he was making plans for Desire's future. Desire had become very sedate
since entering the magistracy; he worked hard, and it was not unlikely
that he would succeed the present procureur du roi at Fontainebleau,
who, they said, was to be advanced to Melun. His parents felt that
they must find him a wife,--some poor girl belonging to an old and
noble family; he would then make his way to the magistracy of Paris.
Perhaps they could get him elected deputy from Fontainebleau, where
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