| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: He cast upon us one of the most lamentable glances that I ever saw as
he answered,--
"If I had a wife I must abandon my father; I could not feed him and a
wife and children too."
"Well, my poor lad, why don't you try to earn more at the salt
marshes, or by carrying the salt to the harbor?"
"Ah, monsieur, I couldn't do that work three months. I am not strong
enough, and if I died my father would have to beg. I am forced to take
a business which only needs a little knack and a great deal of
patience."
"But how can two persons live on twelve sous a day?"
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: " 'Adieu, dear Anastasie, may you be happy! As for me, by to-morrow my
troubles will be over.'
" 'Sir!' cried the lady, turning to Gobseck. 'I accept your offer.'
" 'Come, now,' returned Gobseck. 'You have been a long time in coming
to it, my fair lady.'
"He wrote out a cheque for fifty thousand francs on the Bank of
France, and handed it to the Countess.
" 'Now,' continued he with a smile, such a smile as you will see in
portraits of M. Voltaire, 'now I will give you the rest of the amount
in bills, thirty thousand francs' worth of paper as good as bullion.
This gentleman here has just said, "My bills will be met when they are
Gobseck |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from End of the Tether by Joseph Conrad: a voice suddenly exclaimed--
"We are adrift! Shove off!"
"Captain Whalley! Leap! . . . pull up a little . . .
leap! You can swim."
In that old heart, in that vigorous body, there was,
that nothing should be wanting, a horror of death that
apparently could not be overcome by the horror of
blindness. But after all, for Ivy he had carried his
point, walking in his darkness to the very verge of a
crime. God had not listened to his prayers. The light
had finished ebbing out of the world; not a glimmer. It
End of the Tether |
