| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: she retorted. "So this morning when I rose--"
It may not be useless to say that Madame Mollot was considered a
clever woman in Arcis; that is, she expressed herself fluently and
abused that advantage. A Parisian, wandering by chance into these
regions, like the Unknown, would have thought her excessively
garrulous.
"--I was, naturally, making my toilet, and as I looked mechanically
about me--"
"Through the window?" asked Antonin.
"Certainly; my dressing-room opens on the street. Now you know, of
course, that Poupart has put the stranger into one of the rooms
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: and showed how an air of youth might be given to the dear old things.
The bedroom is white in color, a little dulled with time, just as the
gilding of the fanciful arabesques shows here and there a patch of
red; but this effect harmonizes well with the faded colors of the
Savonnerie tapestry, which was presented to my grandmother by Louis
XV. along with his portrait. The timepiece was a gift from the
Marechal de Saxe, and the china ornaments on the mantelpiece came from
the Marechal de Richelieu. My grandmother's portrait, painted at the
age of twenty-five, hangs in an oval frame opposite that of the King.
The Prince, her husband, is conspicuous by his absence. I like this
frank negligence, untinged by hypocrisy--a characteristic touch which
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Pool in the Desert by Sara Jeanette Duncan: Madeline Anderson was looking at it when Mrs. Mickie and Mrs.
Gammidge came up with an affectionate observation upon the cut of
her skirt, after which Mrs. Mickie harked back to what they had been
talking about before.
'She's straight enough now, I suppose,' this lady said.
'She goes down. But she gives people a good deal of latitude for
speculation.'
'Who is this?' asked Madeline. 'I ask for information, to keep out
of her way. I find I am developing the most shocking curiosity. I
must be in a position to check it.'
The ladies exchanged hardly perceptible glances. Then Mrs. Gammidge
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