| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Maitre Cornelius by Honore de Balzac: robbed to-night, so that my curiosity may be satisfied. Therefore,
messieurs, no one is to leave his chamber to-morrow morning without my
order, under pain of grievous punishment."
Thereupon, all went to bed. The next morning, Louis XI. was the first
to leave his apartment, and he went at once to the door of the strong-
room. He was not a little astonished to see, as he went along, the
marks of a large foot along the stairways and corridors of the house.
Carefully avoiding those precious footprints, he followed them to the
door of the treasure-room, which he found locked without a sign of
fracture or defacement. Then he studied the direction of the steps;
but as they grew gradually fainter, they finally left not the
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela: my name's not Anastasio Montanez! Look here, Quail,
you don't believe it, do you? You ask my partner
Demetrio if I haven't half a dozen bullets in me already.
Christ! Bullets are marbles to me! And I dare you to
contradict me!"
"Viva Anastasio Montanez," shouted Manteca.
"All right, all right!" said Montanez. "Viva Demetrio
Macias, our chief, and long life to God in His heaven
and to the Virgin Mary."
"Viva Demetrio Macias," they all shouted.
They gathered dry brush and wood, built a fire and
The Underdogs |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Men of Iron by Howard Pyle: gesture that poor Lady Alice uttered a faint shriek, and Lady
Anne stopped abruptly, trembling. Then she turned and passed out
the farther door of the summerhouse, poor little Lady Alice
following, holding her tight by the skirts, and trembling and
shuddering as though with a fit of the ague.
The Earl stood looking grimly after them from under his shaggy
eyebrows, until they passed away behind the yew-trees, appeared
again upon the terrace behind, entered the open doors of the
women's house, and were gone. Myles heard their footsteps growing
fainter and fainter, but he never raised his eyes. Upon the
ground at his feet were four pebbles, and he noticed how they
Men of Iron |
