| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Ferragus by Honore de Balzac: ground. You might have taken him for the weird and watchful genii of
the /cochonnet/. He said nothing; and the bowl-players--the most
fanatic men that can be encountered among the sectarians of any faith
--had never asked the reason of his dogged silence; in fact, the most
observing of them thought him deaf and dumb.
When it happened that the distances between the bowls and the
/cochonnet/ had to be measured, the cane of this silent being was used
as a measure, the players coming up and taking it from the icy hands
of the old man and returning it without a word or even a sign of
friendliness. The loan of his cane seemed a servitude to which he had
negatively consented. When a shower fell, he stayed near the
Ferragus |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from An International Episode by Henry James: him you were here."
And then Lord Lambeth, touching his hat a little, shook hands with Bessie.
"Fancy your being here!" he said. He was blushing and smiling;
he looked very handsome, and he had a kind of splendor that he had
not had in America. Bessie Alden's imagination, as we know,
was just then in exercise; so that the tall young Englishman,
as he stood there looking down at her, had the benefit of it.
"He is handsomer and more splendid than anything I have ever seen,"
she said to herself. And then she remembered that he was a marquis,
and she thought he looked like a marquis.
"I say, you know," he cried, "you ought to have let a man know
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Marriage Contract by Honore de Balzac: "--will promote my eager desire," she replied.
"Well, then," said Mathias, "is not this marriage the proper occasion
on which to entail the estate and create the family? Such a course
would, undoubtedly, militate in the mind of the present government in
favor of the nomination of my client whenever a batch of appointments
is sent in. Monsieur le comte can very well afford to devote the
estate of Lanstrac (which is worth a million) to this purpose. I do
not ask that mademoiselle should contribute an equal sum; that would
not be just. But we can surely apply eight hundred thousand of her
patrimony to this object. There are two domains adjoining Lanstrac now
to be sold, which can be purchased for that sum, which will return in
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