| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: aforesaid thirty thousand francs by living as if he had thirty
thousand a year. Everywhere he found the same supreme de volaille, the
same aspics, and French wines; he heard French spoken wherever he went
--in short, he never got away from Paris. He ought, of course, to have
tried to deprave his disposition, to fence himself in triple brass, to
get rid of his illusions, to learn to hear anything said without a
blush, and to master the inmost secrets of the Powers.--Pooh! with a
good deal of trouble he equipped himself with four languages--that is
to say, he laid in a stock of four words for one idea. Then he came
back, and certain tedious dowagers, styled 'conquests' abroad, were
left disconsolate. Godefroid came back, shy, scarcely formed, a good
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Twelve Stories and a Dream by H. G. Wells: a treasure trove. I started off for London there and then. . . ."
"And you never went back?"
"Never."
"But about Jane? Did you write?"
"Three times, fishing like. And no answer. We'd parted in a bit
of a 'uff on account of 'er being jealous. So that I couldn't make
out for certain what it meant.
"I didn't know what to do. I didn't even know whether the old man
knew it was me. I sort of kep' an eye open on papers to see when he'd
give up that treasure to the Crown, as I hadn't a doubt 'e would,
considering 'ow respectable he'd always been."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: gives to her speech the same charm that emanates from her manners? a
woman who knows how to speak and to be silent, whose words are happily
chosen, whose language is pure, and who concerns herself in your
interests with delicacy? Her raillery is caressing, her criticism
never wounds; she neither discourses nor argues, but she likes to lead
a discussion and stop it at the right moment. Her manner is affable
and smiling, her politeness never forced, her readiness to serve
others never servile; she reduces the respect she claims to a soft
shadow; she never wearies you, and you leave her satisfied with her
and with yourself. Her charming grace is conveyed to all the things
with which she surrounds herself. Everything about her pleases the
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