| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: inhabitants of the Villa Planat, "Monsieur DE Longueville." On hearing
the name of the old admiral's protege, every one, down to the player
who was about to miss his stroke, rushed in, as much to study
Mademoiselle de Fontaine's countenance as to judge of this phoenix of
men, who had earned honorable mention to the detriment of so many
rivals. A simple but elegant style of dress, an air of perfect ease,
polite manners, a pleasant voice with a ring in it which found a
response in the hearer's heart-strings, won the good-will of the
family for Monsieur Longueville. He did not seem unaccustomed to the
luxury of the Receiver-General's ostentatious mansion. Though his
conversation was that of a man of the world, it was easy to discern
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Lin McLean by Owen Wister: out about mother. And you're not mad, and he's not, and nothing happens
at all, all the same! Won't you tell me, please?"
Jessamine's eyes were glistening, and she took him in her lap. She was
not going to tell him that he was too young this time. But whatever
things she had shaped to say to the boy were never said.
Through the noise of the gale came the steadier sound of the train, and
the girl rose quickly to preside over her ticket-office and duties behind
the railing in the front room of the station. The boy ran to the window
to watch the great event of Separ's day. The locomotive loomed out from
the yellow clots of drift, paused at the water-tank, and then with steam
and humming came slowly on by the platform. Slowly its long dust-choked
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Fisherman's Luck by Henry van Dyke: a stretch of clear water along the lower side, with two half-sunken
logs sticking out from the bank, against which the current had
drifted a broad raft of weeds. I made a long cast, and sent the
tail-fly close to the edge of the weeds. There was a swelling
ripple on the surface of the water, and a noble fish darted from
under the logs, dashed at the fly, missed it, and whirled back to
his shelter.
"Gee!" said the boy, "that was a whacker! He made a wake like a
steamboat."
It was a moment for serious thought. What was best to be done with
that fish? Leave him to settle down for the night and come back
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