| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost: that it was absolutely impossible for me to remain longer at St.
Lazare; that the night was the most favourable time for going out
unobserved, and that I confidently expected, from his tried
friendship, that he would consent to open the gates for me, or
entrust me with the keys to let myself out.
"This compliment to his friendship seemed to surprise him. He
stood for a few moments looking at me without making any reply.
Finding that I had no time to lose, I just begged to assure him
that I had the most lively sense of all his kindnesses, but that
freedom was dearer to man than every other consideration,
especially so to me, who had been cruelly and unjustly deprived
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Case of the Golden Bullet by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: study. He sat down quietly in a corner of the comfortable little
room beyond which, in a handsomely furnished smoking room, a number
of guests sat playing cards. From the drawing rooms beyond, there
was the sound of music and many voices.
It was all very attractive and comfortable, and the solitary man
sat there enjoying once more the pleasant sensation of triumph, of
joy at the victory that was his alone and that would win him back
all his old friends and prestige. He was looking forward in
agreeable anticipation to the explanations he had to give, when he
suddenly started and grew pale. His eyes dimmed a moment, then he
pulled himself together and murmured: "No, no, not this time. I
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton: "How do you like my funny house?" she asked. "To
me it's like heaven."
As she spoke she untied her little velvet bonnet and
tossing it away with her long cloak stood looking at
him with meditative eyes.
"You've arranged it delightfully," he rejoined, alive
to the flatness of the words, but imprisoned in the
conventional by his consuming desire to be simple and
striking.
"Oh, it's a poor little place. My relations despise it.
But at any rate it's less gloomy than the van der
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