| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Hated Son by Honore de Balzac: lion which has reached a decrepitude that is still full of majesty,
turned to another white-haired man and said, holding out a fleshless
arm covered with sparse hairs, still sinewy, but without vigor:--
"Your turn now, bonesetter. How am I to-day?"
"Doing well, monseigneur; the fever has ceased. You will live many
years yet."
"I wish I could see Maximilien here," continued the duke, with a smile
of satisfaction. "My fine boy! He commands a company in the King's
Guard. The Marechal d'Ancre takes care of my lad, and our gracious
Queen Marie thinks of allying him nobly, now that he is created Duc de
Nivron. My race will be worthily continued. The lad performed
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne: I was just going to cry out, Then I will write it, fair girl! upon
thy lips. -
If I do, said I, I shall perish; - so I took her by the hand, and
led her to the door, and begg'd she would not forget the lesson I
had given her. - She said, indeed she would not; - and, as she
uttered it with some earnestness, she turn'd about, and gave me
both her hands, closed together, into mine; - it was impossible not
to compress them in that situation; - I wish'd to let them go; and
all the time I held them, I kept arguing within myself against it,
- and still I held them on. - In two minutes I found I had all the
battle to fight over again; - and I felt my legs and every limb
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: so. "You are mine!" she said.
Des Lupeaulx admired the expression.
[That night, at the Opera, the old coxcomb related the incident as
follows: "A woman who did not want to tell a man she would be his,--an
acknowledgment a well-bred woman never allows herself to make,--
changed the words into 'You are mine.' Don't you think the evasion
charming?"]
"But you must be my ally," he answered. "Now listen, your husband has
spoken to the minister of a plan for the reform of the administration;
the paper I have shown you is a part of that plan. I want to know what
it is. Find out, and tell me to-night."
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