| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens: John merely pointed to him as he stood with his head bent forward,
and his earnest gaze fixed closely on his questioner's face; and
nodded sagely.
'Tell him then, Barnaby, should he be engaged,' said Mr Chester,
'that I shall be glad to wait his convenience here, and to see him
(if he will call) at any time this evening.--At the worst I can
have a bed here, Willet, I suppose?'
Old John, immensely flattered by the personal notoriety implied in
this familiar form of address, answered, with something like a
knowing look, 'I should believe you could, sir,' and was turning
over in his mind various forms of eulogium, with the view of
Barnaby Rudge |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Coxon Fund by Henry James: been she wouldn't have attempted to saddle me with any portion of
it. The Mulvilles were sympathy itself, but were they absolutely
candid? Could they indeed be, in their position--would it even
have been to be desired? Yes, she had sent for me to ask no less
than that of me--whether there was anything dreadful kept back.
She made no allusion whatever to George Gravener--I thought her
silence the only good taste and her gaiety perhaps a part of the
very anxiety of that discretion, the effect of a determination that
people shouldn't know from herself that her relations with the man
she was to marry were strained. All the weight, however, that she
left me to throw was a sufficient implication of the weight HE had
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Heroes by Charles Kingsley: sun, buried deep in the glens of the snow mountains; and to
the fair land of Hermione, where dwelt the most righteous of
all nations; and to the gates of the world below, and to the
dwelling-place of dreams.
And at last Ancaios shouted, 'Endure a little while, brave
friends, the worst is surely past; for I can see the pure
west wind ruffle the water, and hear the roar of ocean on the
sands. So raise up the mast, and set the sail, and face what
comes like men.'
Then out spoke the magic bough, 'Ah, would that I had
perished long ago, and been whelmed by the dread blue rocks,
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