| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg by Mark Twain: then he said:
"It weighs a hundred and sixty pounds? Why, Mary, it's for-ty thou-
sand dollars--think of it--a whole fortune! Not ten men in this
village are worth that much. Give me the paper."
He skimmed through it and said:
"Isn't it an adventure! Why, it's a romance; it's like the
impossible things one reads about in books, and never sees in life."
He was well stirred up now; cheerful, even gleeful. He tapped his
old wife on the cheek, and said humorously, "Why, we're rich, Mary,
rich; all we've got to do is to bury the money and burn the papers.
If the gambler ever comes to inquire, we'll merely look coldly upon
The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from To-morrow by Joseph Conrad: the London papers for Harry Hagberd, and offer-
ing rewards for any sort of likely information.
And the barber would go on to describe with sar-
donic gusto, how that stranger in mourning had
been seen exploring the country, in carts, on foot,
taking everybody into his confidence, visiting all
the inns and alehouses for miles around, stopping
people on the road with his questions, looking into
the very ditches almost; first in the greatest excite-
ment, then with a plodding sort of perseverance,
growing slower and slower; and he could not even
To-morrow |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: "Heavens!" cried Monsieur de Bourbonne, "then why do you live in a
garret?"
"Let me go on."
"True--I'm listening."
Octave resumed the letter, but there were passages which he could not
read without deep emotion.
"'My beloved Husband,--You ask me the reason of my sadness. Has
it, then, passed from my soul to my face; or have you only guessed
it?--but how could you fail to do so, one in heart as we are? I
cannot deceive you; this may be a misfortune, for it is one of the
conditions of happy love that a wife shall be gay and caressing.
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