| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Mistress Wilding by Rafael Sabatini: his hand at such a time, but more unfortunate still was it that Fletcher
should have had a pistol in his belt. The Scot dropped the bridle at
last; dropped it to pluck forth the weapon.
"Hi! I did not.. ." began Dare, who had stood appalled by what he had
done in the second or two that had passed since he had delivered the
blow. The rest of his sentence was drowned in the report of Fletcher's
pistol, and Dare dropped dead on the rough cobbles of the yard.
Ferguson has left it on record - and, presumably, he had Fletcher's word
for it - that it was no part of the Scot's intent to do Mr. Dare a
mischief. He had but drawn the pistol to intimidate him into better
manners, but in his haste he accidentally pulled the trigger.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from La Grande Breteche by Honore de Balzac: about with the wild freedom of nature; above all, you must have no
fear of cold, for in a few moments you feel an icy cloak settle on
your shoulders, like the Commendatore's hand on Don Giovanni's neck.
"One evening I felt a shudder; the wind had turned an old rusty
weathercock, and the creaking sounded like a cry from the house, at
the very moment when I was finishing a gloomy drama to account for
this monumental embodiment of woe. I returned to my inn, lost in
gloomy thoughts. When I had supped, the hostess came into my room with
an air of mystery, and said, 'Monsieur, here is Monsieur Regnault.'
" 'Who is Monsieur Regnault?'
" 'What, sir, do you not know Monsieur Regnault?--Well, that's odd,'
La Grande Breteche |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: The father's last breath must have been a sigh of joy, and in
that sigh his whole life was summed up; he was cheated even at
the last. They laid Father Goriot upon his wretched bed with
reverent hands. Thenceforward there was no expression on his
face, only the painful traces of the struggle between life and
death that was going on in the machine; for that kind of cerebral
consciousness that distinguishes between pleasure and pain in a
human being was extinguished; it was only a question of time--and
the mechanism itself would be destroyed.
"He will lie like this for several hours, and die so quietly at
last, that we shall not know when he goes; there will be no
Father Goriot |
