| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: unfortunate accident has revealed to you a secret which has hitherto
been sedulously kept; promise me to bury the recollection of that
scene. Do this for my sake, I beg of you. I don't ask you to swear it;
give me your word of honor and I shall be content."
"Need I give it to you?" I said. "Do we not understand each other?"
"You must not judge unfavorably of Monsieur de Mortsauf; you see the
effects of his many sufferings under the emigration," she went on.
"To-morrow he will entirely forget all that he has said and done; you
will find him kind and excellent as ever."
"Do not seek to excuse him, madame," I replied. "I will do all you
wish. I would fling myself into the Indre at this moment if I could
The Lily of the Valley |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Tapestried Chamber by Walter Scott: though not without obvious reluctance, the history of his night's
adventures in the Tapestried Chamber.
"I undressed and went to bed so soon as your lordship left me
yesterday evening; but the wood in the chimney, which nearly
fronted my bed, blazed brightly and cheerfully, and, aided by a
hundred exciting recollections of my childhood and youth, which
had been recalled by the unexpected pleasure of meeting your
lordship, prevented me from falling immediately asleep. I ought,
however, to say that these reflections were all of a pleasant and
agreeable kind, grounded on a sense of having for a time
exchanged the labour, fatigues, and dangers of my profession for
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Letters from England by Elizabeth Davis Bancroft: excess of it. My hopes are not less than they were, but all that
France needs may not come at once. We were fourteen years in
changing our confederation into a union, perhaps France cannot be
expected to jump at once into perfect legislation or perfect forms.
Crude ideas are afloat, but as to Communism, it is already exploded,
or will be brushed away from legislative power as soon as the
National Assembly meets, though the question of ameliorating the
condition of the laboring class is more and more engaging the public
mind." . . . "I spent an hour with Cousin, the Minister of a
morning. He gave me sketches of many of the leading men of these
times, and I made him detail to me he scene of Louis Philippe's
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