| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: of-the-way chop-houses and bars in his search for the impartial
stranger to whom he should disclose himself.
At first every face looked encouragement; but at the crucial
moment he always held back. So much was at stake, and it was so
essential that his first choice should be decisive. He dreaded
stupidity, timidity, intolerance. The imaginative eye, the
furrowed brow, were what he sought. He must reveal himself only
to a heart versed in the tortuous motions of the human will; and
he began to hate the dull benevolence of the average face. Once
or twice, obscurely, allusively, he made a beginning--once
sitting down at a man's side in a basement chop-house, another
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Under the Red Robe by Stanley Weyman: woods with eyes that saw yet did not see. The red squirrel
swarming up the trunk, the startled pigs that rushed away
grunting from their feast of mast, the solitary rider who met us,
armed to the teeth, and passed northwards after whispering with
the landlord--all these I saw. But my mind was not with them.
It was groping and feeling about like a hunted mole for some way
of escape. For time pressed. The slope we were on was growing
steeper. By-and-by we fell into a southward valley, and began to
follow it steadily upwards, crossing and recrossing a swiftly
rushing stream. The snow peaks began to be hidden behind the
rising bulk of hills that overhung us, and sometimes we could see
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Emma by Jane Austen: which will be longer than I foresaw, I have heard from her.--
She gives a good account of her own health; but as she never complains,
I dare not depend. I want to have your opinion of her looks.
I know you will soon call on her; she is living in dread of the visit.
Perhaps it is paid already. Let me hear from you without delay;
I am impatient for a thousand particulars. Remember how few
minutes I was at Randalls, and in how bewildered, how mad a state:
and I am not much better yet; still insane either from happiness
or misery. When I think of the kindness and favour I have met with,
of her excellence and patience, and my uncle's generosity, I am mad
with joy: but when I recollect all the uneasiness I occasioned her,
Emma |
