| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from At the Sign of the Cat & Racket by Honore de Balzac: and Mademoiselle Virginie, had been devoting themselves to the hard
labor, known as stock-taking.
Every bale was turned over, and the length verified to ascertain the
exact value of the remnant. The ticket attached to each parcel was
carefully examined to see at what time the piece had been bought. The
retail price was fixed. Monsieur Guillaume, always on his feet, his
pen behind his ear, was like a captain commanding the working of the
ship. His sharp tones, spoken through a trap-door, to inquire into the
depths of the hold in the cellar-store, gave utterance to the
barbarous formulas of trade-jargon, which find expression only in
cipher. "How much H. N. Z.?"--"All sold."--"What is left of Q. X.?"--
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Purse by Honore de Balzac: comprehended in boundless admiration for the man she loves? When
the painter, uneasy at her silence, leaned forward to look at
her, she held out her hand, unable to speak a word, but two tears
fell from her eyes. Hippolyte took her hand and covered it with
kisses; for a minute they looked at each other in silence, both
longing to confess their love, and not daring. The painter kept
her hand in his, and the same glow, the same throb, told them
that their hearts were both beating wildly. The young girl, too
greatly agitated, gently drew away from Hippolyte, and said, with
a look of the utmost simplicity:
"You will make my mother very happy."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Death of the Lion by Henry James: and it had grown magnificently under this second hand. Loose
liberal confident, it might have passed for a great gossiping
eloquent letter - the overflow into talk of an artist's amorous
plan. The theme I thought singularly rich, quite the strongest he
had yet treated; and this familiar statement of it, full too of
fine maturities, was really, in summarised splendour, a mine of
gold, a precious independent work. I remember rather profanely
wondering whether the ultimate production could possibly keep at
the pitch. His reading of the fond epistle, at any rate, made me
feel as if I were, for the advantage of posterity, in close
correspondence with him - were the distinguished person to whom it
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