| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Touchstone by Edith Wharton: on you for my information about Flamel. He's your friend and not
mine. In fact, I've sometimes wondered at your going out of your
way to be so civil to him when you must see plainly enough that I
don't like him."
Her answer to this was not immediate. She seemed to be choosing
her words with care, not so much for her own sake as for his, and
his exasperation was increased by the suspicion that she was
trying to spare him.
"He was your friend before he was mine. I never knew him till I
was married. It was you who brought him to the house and who
seemed to wish me to like him."
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Main Street by Sinclair Lewis: "Ray, I could shake you! Do you know you're too
apologetic? You always appreciate other people too much. You
fuss over Carol Kennicott when she has some crazy theory that
we all ought to turn anarchists or live on figs and nuts or
something. And you listen when Harry Haydock tries to show
off and talk about turnovers and credits and things you know
lots better than he does. Look folks in the eye! Glare at
'em! Talk deep! You're the smartest man in town, if you
only knew it. You ARE!"
He could not believe it. He kept coming back to her for
confirmation. He practised glaring and talking deep, but he
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from An Old Maid by Honore de Balzac: "to the person who had long had him under irons."
This horrible calumny embittered the last days of the dainty chevalier
all the more because, as the present Scene will show, he had lost a
hope long cherished to which he had made many sacrifices.
Madame Lardot leased to the chevalier two rooms on the second floor of
her house, for the modest sum of one hundred francs a year. The worthy
gentleman dined out every day, returning only in time to go to bed.
His sole expense therefore was for breakfast, invariably composed of a
cup of chocolate, with bread and butter and fruits in their season. He
made no fire except in the coldest winter, and then only enough to get
up by. Between eleven and four o'clock he walked about, went to read
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