| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: disturbing them, and that it was my fault. I made a presence of
approving everything, this time also, thanks to that strange
feeling that forced me to treat him the more amiably in
proportion as his presence was more painful to me. I said that I
trusted to his taste, and I advised my wife to do the same. He
remained just as long as it was necessary in order to efface the
unpleasant impression of my abrupt entrance with a frightened
face. He went away with an air of satisfaction at the
conclusions arrived at. As for me, I was perfectly sure that, in
comparison with that which preoccupied them, the question of
music was indifferent to them. I accompanied him with especial
The Kreutzer Sonata |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Wrecker by Stevenson & Osbourne: complexity. Douglas B. Longhurst said humorously that the
receiver's work would be cut out for him. I cannot deny that
some of them have a speculative look. God forbid a sensitive,
refined spirit like yours should ever come face to face with a
Commissioner in Bankruptcy; these men get all the sweetness
knocked right out of them. But I could bear up better if it
weren't for press comments. Often and often, Loudon, I recall
to mind your most legitimate critiques of the press system.
They published an interview with me, not the least like what I
said, and with JEERING comments; it would make your blood
boil, it was literally INHUMANE; I wouldn't have written it
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Facino Cane by Honore de Balzac: about the fall of Venice befell in such a way that the secret of the
hoard must have perished with Bianca's brother, Vendramin, a doge to
whom I looked to make my peace with the Ten. I sent memorials to the
First Consul; I proposed an agreement with the Emperor of Austria;
every one sent me about my business for a lunatic. Come! we will go to
Venice; let us set out as beggars, we shall come back millionaires. We
will buy back some of my estates, and you shall be my heir! You shall
be Prince of Varese!"
My head was swimming. For me his confidences reached the proportions
of tragedy; at the sight of that white head of his and beyond it the
black water in the trenches of the Bastille lying still as a canal in
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