| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Breaking Point by Mary Roberts Rinehart: "Mind you," he said, "I don't know anything and I'm not asking any
questions. But if the Board of Trade, or the Chief of Police, had
come to me and said, 'Who is the best wife for - well, for a young
man who is an important part of this community?' I'd have said in
reply, 'Gentlemen, there is a Miss Elizabeth Wheeler who - '"
Suddenly she bent down and kissed him.
"Oh, do you think so?" she asked, breathlessly. "I love him so
much, Doctor David. And I feel so unworthy."
"So you are," he said. "So's he. So are all of us, when it comes
to a great love, child. That is, we are never quite what the other
fellow thinks we are. It's when we don't allow for what the
The Breaking Point |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories by Alice Dunbar: Odalie could hear the jingle of folly bells on the maskers'
costumes, the tinkle of music, and the echoing strains of songs.
Up to her ears there floated the laughter of the older maskers,
and the screams of the little children frightened at their own
images under the mask and domino. What a hurry to be out and in
the motley merry throng, to be pacing Royal Street to Canal
Street, where was life and the world!
They were tired eyes with which Odalie looked at the gay pageant
at last, tired with watching throng after throng of maskers, of
the unmasked, of peering into the cartsful of singing minstrels,
into carriages of revellers, hoping for a glimpse of Pierre the
The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Rezanov by Gertrude Atherton: if we were alone I certainly should kiss you."
But her eyes did not melt again at the vision.
She flushed hotly with annoyance. "I am a child
to you! Were it not that I have read a few books,
you would find me but a year older than Ana
Paula. Well! Regard me as a child and do not
attempt to flirt with me again. Shall it be so?"
"As you wish!" Rezanov looked at her half in
resentment, half wistfully, then shrugged his
shoulders, and called to Davidov to steer for the
anchorage. She was quite right; and on the whole
Rezanov |
