| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte: unable before to find a quiet moment for reading it, - 'Miss Grey,
do put away that dull, stupid letter, and listen to me! I'm sure
my talk must be far more amusing than that.'
She seated herself on the low stool at my feet; and I, suppressing
a sigh of vexation, began to fold up the epistle.
'You should tell the good people at home not to bore you with such
long letters,' said she; 'and, above all, do bid them write on
proper note-paper, and not on those great vulgar sheets. You
should see the charming little lady-like notes mamma writes to her
friends.'
'The good people at home,' replied I, 'know very well that the
Agnes Grey |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Main Street by Sinclair Lewis: impossible to get through the desolation of not seeing him.
Each morning, each afternoon, each evening was a compartment
divided from all other units of time, distinguished by a sudden
"Oh! I want to see Erik!" which was as devastating as
though she had never said it before.
There were wretched periods when she could not picture
him. Usually he stood out in her mind in some little moment--
glancing up from his preposterous pressing-iron, or running on
the beach with Dave Dyer. But sometimes he had vanished;
he was only an opinion. She worried then about his appearance:
Weren't his wrists too large and red? Wasn't his nose
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Breaking Point by Mary Roberts Rinehart: picked up the prayer-book, only to find him lifting himself in the
bed and listening.
"Somebody closed the hall door, Lucy. If it's Reynolds, I want to
see him."
She got up and went to the head of the stairs. The light was low
in the hall beneath, and she saw a man standing there. But she
still wore her reading glasses, and she saw at first hardly more
than a figure.
"Is that you, Doctor Reynolds?" she asked, in her high old voice.
Then she put her hand to her throat and stood rigid, staring down.
For the man had whipped off his cap and stood with his arms wide,
The Breaking Point |
