| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: always at home at that hour.'
'Friday, at noon,' repeated Herr Winckelkopf, and he made a note to
that effect in a large ledger that was lying on a bureau near the
fireplace.
'And now,' said Lord Arthur, rising from his seat, 'pray let me
know how much I am in your debt.'
'It is such a small matter, Lord Arthur, that I do not care to make
any charge. The dynamite comes to seven and sixpence, the clock
will be three pounds ten, and the carriage about five shillings. I
am only too pleased to oblige any friend of Count Rouvaloff's.'
'But your trouble, Herr Winckelkopf?'
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Jolly Corner by Henry James: time these thirty years, a selfish frivolous scandalous life. And
you see what it has made of me."
She just waited, smiling at him. "You see what it has made of ME."
"Oh you're a person whom nothing can have altered. You were born
to be what you are, anywhere, anyway: you've the perfection
nothing else could have blighted. And don't you see how, without
my exile, I shouldn't have been waiting till now - ?" But he
pulled up for the strange pang.
"The great thing to see," she presently said, "seems to me to be
that it has spoiled nothing. It hasn't spoiled your being here at
last. It hasn't spoiled this. It hasn't spoiled your speaking - "
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James: power. Her mother's death had made her means sufficient, and she
had gone to live in a more convenient quarter. But her loss had
been great and her visitation cruel; it never would have occurred
to me moreover to suppose she could come to feel the possession of
a technical tip, of a piece of literary experience, a counterpoise
to her grief. Strange to say, none the less, I couldn't help
believing after I had seen her a few times that I caught a glimpse
of some such oddity. I hasten to add that there had been other
things I couldn't help believing, or at least imagining; and as I
never felt I was really clear about these, so, as to the point I
here touch on, I give her memory the benefit of the doubt.
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