| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart: the crash of doom. It was for all the world as if something
heavy, perhaps a piece of steel, had rolled clattering and
jangling down the hard-wood stairs leading to the card-room.
In the silence that followed Liddy stirred and snored again. I
was exasperated: first she kept me awake by silly alarms, then
when she was needed she slept like Joe Jefferson, or Rip,--they
are always the same to me. I went in and aroused her, and I give
her credit for being wide awake the minute I spoke.
"Get up," I said, "if you don't want to be murdered in your bed."
"Where? How?" she yelled vociferously, and jumped up.
"There's somebody in the house," I said. "Get up. We'll have to
The Circular Staircase |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from An International Episode by Henry James: with Bessie Alden--on the red sea rocks beyond the lawn;
in the course of long island rides, with a slow return in
the glowing twilight; on the deep veranda late in the evening.
Lord Lambeth, who had stayed at many houses, had never stayed
at a house in which it was possible for a young man to converse
so frequently with a young lady. This young lady no longer applied
to Percy Beaumont for information concerning his lordship.
She addressed herself directly to the young nobleman.
She asked him a great many questions, some of which bored him
a little; for he took no pleasure in talking about himself.
"Lord Lambeth," said Bessie Alden, "are you a hereditary legislator?"
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Island Nights' Entertainments by Robert Louis Stevenson: tell her all was well.
"But no," thinks he; "I shall wait till I can show her the
concertina; we shall see what the chit will do then. Perhaps she
will understand in the future that her husband is a man of some
intelligence."
As soon as it was dark father and son-in-law launched Pili's boat
and set the sail. There was a great sea, and it blew strong from
the leeward; but the boat was swift and light and dry, and skimmed
the waves. The wizard had a lantern, which he lit and held with
his finger through the ring; and the two sat in the stern and
smoked cigars, of which Kalamake had always a provision, and spoke
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