| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Albert Savarus by Honore de Balzac: PARIS, May 1842.
ADDENDUM
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.
Beauseant, Vicomtesse de
Father Goriot
The Deserted Woman
Genovese
Massimilla Doni
Hannequin, Leopold
Beatrix
Cousin Betty
Albert Savarus |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost: I saw that his object was to discover the present temper of my
mind. I opened my heart to him without any reserve, except as to
the mere point of my intention of escaping. `It is not from such
a friend as you,' said I, `that I can ever wish to dissemble my
real feelings. If you flattered yourself with a hope that you
were at last about to find me grown prudent and regular in my
conduct, a libertine reclaimed by the chastisements of fortune,
released alike from the trammels of love, and the dominion that
Manon wields over me, I must in candour say, that you deceive
yourself. You still behold me, as you left me four months ago,
the slave--if you will, the unhappy slave--of a passion, from
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: be mere evasions, that you may yourself retain possession of the
estates which are hers by right, and make me, in the meanwhile, a
tool in your desperate enterprise, by holding out hopes and
expectations which you are resolved never to realize."
"Sir Frederick, I protest, by all that is sacred--"
"I will listen to no protestations; I have been cheated with them
too long," answered Sir Frederick.
"If you leave us," said Ellieslaw, "you cannot but know both your
ruin and ours is certain; all depends on our adhering together."
"Leave me to take care of myself," returned the knight; "but were
what you say true, I would rather perish than be fooled any
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