| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Riverman by Stewart Edward White: permit. Then he retired to the library, where, for a long time, he
sat in twilight and loneliness. Finally, when he could no longer
distinguish objects across the room, he arose with a sigh, lit the
lamp, and settled himself to read.
The last of the twilight drained from the world, and the window
panes turned a burnished black. Through the half-open sashes sucked
a warm little breeze, swaying the long lace curtains back and forth.
The hum of lawn-sprinklers and the chirping of crickets and tree-
frogs came with it.
One by one the lawn-sprinklers fell silent. Gradually there
descended upon the world the deep slumbrous stillness of late night;
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson: the authorities were, for this occasion only, so polite as to hand
them over upon application.
In some ways, our journey may be said to end with this letter-bag
at Compiegne. The spell was broken. We had partly come home from
that moment.
No one should have any correspondence on a journey; it is bad
enough to have to write; but the receipt of letters is the death of
all holiday feeling.
'Out of my country and myself I go.' I wish to take a dive among
new conditions for a while, as into another element. I have
nothing to do with my friends or my affections for the time; when I
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy: the Church has never been backward. . . . Eh?"
But Chauvelin was not listening. His every faculty was now
concentrated on that door through which presently Desgas would enter.
Marguerite's thoughts, too, were centered there, for her ears had
suddenly caught, through the stillness of the night, the sound of
numerous and measured treads some distance away.
It was Desgas and his men. Another three minutes and they
would be here! Another three minutes and the awful thing would have
occurred: the brave eagle would have fallen in the ferret's trap!
She would have moved now and screamed, but she dared not; for whilst she
heard the soldiers approaching, she was looking at Percy and watching
The Scarlet Pimpernel |
