| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart: but I haven't felt as well in a dozen years. Sometimes, when I
am bored, I ring for Liddy, and we talk things over. When Warner
married Rosie, Liddy sniffed and said what I took for
faithfulness in Rosie had been nothing but mawkishness. I have
not yet outlived Liddy's contempt because I gave them silver
knives and forks as a wedding gift.
So we sit and talk, and sometimes Liddy threatens to leave, and
often I discharge her, but we stay together somehow. I am
talking of renting a house next year, and Liddy says to be sure
there is no ghost. To be perfectly frank, I never really lived
until that summer. Time has passed since I began this story.
The Circular Staircase |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Case of the Golden Bullet by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: was that of a corpse.
"Heart disease, probably," murmured the physician, as he touched
the icy forehead. Then he felt the pulse of the stiffened hand
from which the pen had fallen in the moment of death, raised the
drooping head and lifted up the half-closed eyelids. The eyes
were glazed.
The others looked on in silence. Horn was very pale, and his
usually calm face showed great emotion. Johann seemed quite beside
himself, the tears rolled down his cheeks unhindered. Muller stood
without a sign of life, his sallow face seemed made of bronze; he
was watching and listening. He seemed to hear and see what no one
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Works of Samuel Johnson by Samuel Johnson: "From shingles grey the lances start,
"The bracken bush sends forth the dart,
"The rushes and the willow wand
"Are bristling into axe and brand."
Lady of the Lake. Canto v. 9.
Two men examining the same question proceed
commonly like the physician and gardener in selecting
herbs, or the farmer and hero looking on the plain;
they bring minds impressed with different notions,
and direct their inquiries to different ends; they
form, therefore, contrary conclusions, and each
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