| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane: darted at the elevated station stairs and the horse cars were
thronged with owners of bundles.
The pace of the forlorn woman was slow. She was apparently
searching for some one. She loitered near the doors of saloons and
watched men emerge from them. She scanned furtively the faces in
the rushing stream of pedestrians. Hurrying men, bent on catching
some boat or train, jostled her elbows, failing to notice her,
their thoughts fixed on distant dinners.
The forlorn woman had a peculiar face. Her smile was no
smile. But when in repose her features had a shadowy look that was
like a sardonic grin, as if some one had sketched with cruel
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Z. Marcas by Honore de Balzac: life extended over seven lustres.
Marcas! Does it not hint of some precious object that is broken with a
fall, with or without a crash?
I had finished studying the law in Paris in 1836. I lived at that time
in the Rue Corneille in a house where none but students came to lodge,
one of those large houses where there is a winding staircase quite at
the back lighted below from the street, higher up by borrowed lights,
and at the top by a skylight. There were forty furnished rooms--
furnished as students' rooms are! What does youth demand more than was
here supplied? A bed, a few chairs, a chest of drawers, a looking-
glass, and a table. As soon as the sky is blue the student opens his
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Heritage of the Desert by Zane Grey: "Now mind you, I'll take a bead on this white-faced spy if you send him
up there."
It was Snap Naab's voice, and his speech concluded with the click of
teeth characteristic of him in anger.
"Stand there!" August Naab exclaimed in wrath. "Listen. You have been
drinking again or you wouldn't talk of frilling a man. I warned you. I
won't do this thing you ask of me till I have your promise. Why won't
you leave the bottle alone?"
"I'll promise," came the sullen reply.
"Very well. Then pack and go across to Bitter Seeps."
"That job'll take all summer," growled Snap.
The Heritage of the Desert |
