| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: Brill smoothed the newspaper as though it were the manuscript of her part
and said gently; "Yes, I have been an actress for a long time."
The band had been having a rest. Now they started again. And what they
played was warm, sunny, yet there was just a faint chill--a something, what
was it?--not sadness--no, not sadness--a something that made you want to
sing. The tune lifted, lifted, the light shone; and it seemed to Miss
Brill that in another moment all of them, all the whole company, would
begin singing. The young ones, the laughing ones who were moving together,
they would begin, and the men's voices, very resolute and brave, would join
them. And then she too, she too, and the others on the benches--they would
come in with a kind of accompaniment--something low, that scarcely rose or
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Lesson of the Master by Henry James: the listening candour of a child.
"Of course you must. And tremendously well, do you mind? That
takes off a little of my esteem for this thing of yours - that it
goes on abroad. Hang 'abroad!' Stay at home and do things here -
do subjects we can measure."
"I'll do whatever you tell me," Overt said, deeply attentive. "But
pardon me if I say I don't understand how you've been reading my
book," he added. "I've had you before me all the afternoon, first
in that long walk, then at tea on the lawn, till we went to dress
for dinner, and all the evening at dinner and in this place."
St. George turned his face about with a smile. "I gave it but a
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Another Study of Woman by Honore de Balzac: questioning; she will give meaning to the movement by which she twirls
a vinaigrette hanging to her finger by a ring. She gets an artificial
grandeur out of superlative trivialities; she simply drops her hand
impressively, letting it fall over the arm of her chair as dewdrops
hang on the cup of a flower, and all is said--she has pronounced
judgment beyond appeal, to the apprehension of the most obtuse. She
knows how to listen to you; she gives you the opportunity of shining,
and--I ask your modesty--those moments are rare?"
The candid simplicity of the young Pole, to whom Blondet spoke, made
all the party shout with laughter.
"Now, you will not talk for half-an-hour with a /bourgeoise/ without
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