| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Under the Andes by Rex Stout: either side, but there was no protuberance that would hold them.
Nothing remained to be done.
Harry and I held a consultation then and agreed on the only
possible means of escape. I turned to Desiree:
"Can you swim?"
"Parfaitement," she replied. "But against that"--
pointing to the whirling water--"I do not know. I can try."
I, who remember the black fury of that stream as it swept past
us, can appreciate the courage of her.
We lost no time, for the foulness of the air was weakening us
with every breath we took. Our preparations were few.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson: of advisers were at the last persuaded to consent, and made only this
condition that I was to lay the paper before Prestongrange with the
express compliments of all concerned.
The Advocate was at the castle dining with his Grace. By the hand of
one of Colstoun's servants I sent him a billet asking for an interview,
and received a summons to meet him at once in a private house of the
town. Here I found him alone in a chamber; from his face there was
nothing to be gleaned; yet I was not so unobservant but what I spied
some halberts in the hall, and not so stupid but what I could gather he
was prepared to arrest me there and then, should it appear advisable.
"So, Mr. David, this is you?" said he.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: Laurent Goussard, who possesses two or three mills on the river Aube.
This man, formerly a member of the revolutionary municipality of Arcis
and the intimate friend of Danton, was the one who wrote to the latter
telling him that the axe was suspended over the throat of the ex-
superior of the Ursulines. This, however, did not prevent the worthy
/sans-culotte/ from buying up the greater part of the convent property
when it was sold under the name of national domain.
At the period when Mother Marie-des-Anges was authorized to
reconstitute her community, Laurent Goussard, who had not made much by
his purchase, went to see the good abbess, and proposed to her to buy
back the former property of her convent. Very shrewd in business,
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