| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Sarrasine by Honore de Balzac: they are pleased with your apartments, had noticed, from time to time,
the appearance of an extraordinary personage at the fetes, concerts,
balls, and routs given by the countess. It was a man. The first time
that he was seen in the house was at a concert, when he seemed to have
been drawn to the salon by Marianina's enchanting voice.
"I have been cold for the last minute or two," said a lady near the
door to her neighbor.
The stranger, who was standing near the speaker, moved away.
"This is very strange! now I am warm," she said, after his departure.
"Perhaps you will call me mad, but I cannot help thinking that my
neighbor, the gentleman in black who just walked away, was the cause
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Ferragus by Honore de Balzac: power holds ever down to the level of the mire. They all have a dream,
a hope, a happiness,--cards, lottery, or wine.
There was nothing of all this in the personage who now leaned
carelessly against the wall in front of Monsieur de Maulincour, like
some fantastic idea drawn by an artist on the back of a canvas the
front of which is turned to the wall. This tall, spare man, whose
leaden visage expressed some deep but chilling thought, dried up all
pity in the hearts of those who looked at him by the scowling look and
the sarcastic attitude which announced an intention of treating every
man as an equal. His face was of a dirty white, and his wrinkled
skull, denuded of hair, bore a vague resemblance to a block of
Ferragus |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: departure, notwithstanding the pretended symptoms of
indisposition by which it was accompanied. Encouraged by the
rules of etiquette, which he had begun to introduce at the
court as an element of every relation of life, Louis XIV.
did not disturb himself; he offered his hand to Madame
without looking at Monsieur his brother, and led the young
princess to the door of her apartments. It was remarked that
at the threshold of the door, his majesty, freed from every
restraint, or not equal to the situation, sighed very
deeply. The ladies present -- for nothing escapes a woman's
glance -- Mademoiselle Montalais, for instance -- did not
Ten Years Later |
