| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart: at each other over--of all things on earth--a white silk and wool
blanket, exquisitely fine! It was the most unghostly thing in
the world, with its lavender border and its faint scent.
Gertrude was the first to speak.
"Somebody--had it?" she asked.
"Yes. Halsey tried to stop whoever it was and fell. Gertrude,
that blanket is not mine. I have never seen before."
She held it up and looked at it: then she went to the door on to
the veranda and threw it open. Perhaps a hundred feet from the
house were two figures, that moved slowly toward us as we looked.
When they came within range of the light, I recognized Halsey,
The Circular Staircase |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: stockings, that they might be satisfied whether all my body was of
the same colour with my face. I could remark, that after they had
observed me some time, they discovered some aversion from a white;
however, seeing me pull out my handkerchief, they asked me for it
with a great deal of eagerness; I cut it into several pieces that I
might satisfy them all, and distributed it amongst them; they bound
them about their heads, but gave me to understand that they should
have liked them better if they had been red: after this we were
seldom without their company, which gave occasion to an accident,
which though it seemed to threaten some danger at first, turned
afterwards to our advantage.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Herodias by Gustave Flaubert: vaults, with pillars set at regular distances. The first vault opened
contained old armour; the second was full of pikes, with long points
emerging from tufts of feathers. The walls of the third chamber were
hung with a kind of tapestry made of slender reeds, laid in
perpendicular rows. Those of the fourth were covered with scimitars.
In the middle of the fifth cell, rows of helmets were seen, the crests
of which looked like a battalion of fiery serpents. The sixth cell
contained nothing but empty quivers; the seventh, greaves for
protecting the legs in battle; the eighth vault was filled with
bracelets and armlets; and an examination of the remaining vaults
disclosed forks, grappling-irons, ladders, cords, even catapults, and
Herodias |
