| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Vailima Letters by Robert Louis Stevenson: plantation company, fitting a ring on every man's finger, and
a ring and a thimble on both the women's. This was very much
in character with her native name TEUILA, the adorner of the
ugly - so of course this was the point of her verse and at a
given moment all the performers displayed the rings upon
their fingers. Pelema (the cousin - OUR cousin) was
described as watching from the house and whenever he saw any
boy not doing anything, running and doing it himself.
Fanny's verse was less intelligible, but it was accompanied
in the dance with a pantomime of terror well-fitted to call
up her haunting, indefatigable and diminutive presence in a
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Collection of Antiquities by Honore de Balzac: ruins of Carthage. Had she not outlived her creed, and the beliefs
that had been destroyed? She is a sad and silent woman, with nothing
of her old beauty left except the eyes, that shine with an unearthly
light. I watched her on her way to mass, with her book in her hand,
and could not help thinking that she prayed to God to take her out of
the world."
LES JARDIES, July 1837.
ADDENDUM
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.
Note: The Old Maid is a companion piece to The Collection of
Antiquities. In other Addendum appearances they are combined under the
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Cousin Betty by Honore de Balzac: pension, and I shall be sure to find some good appointment on a
railway.
"Ah, my sweet friend, I feel so much the younger for your letter!
I shall begin life again and make a fortune, you will see, for our
dear little one. As I read your letter, a thousand times more
ardent than those of the /Nouvelle Heloise/, it worked a miracle!
I had not believed it possible that I could love you more. This
evening, at Lisbeth's you will see
"YOUR HECTOR, FOR LIFE."
Reine carried off this reply, the first letter the Baron had written
to his "sweet friend." Such emotions to some extent counterbalanced
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Lucile by Owen Meredith: Pride forbade: and the hope his old foe might relent
Experience rejected . . . "My life for the boy's!"
(He exclaim'd); "for I die with my son, if he dies!
Lucile! Heaven bless you for all you have done!
Save him, save him, Lucile! save my son! save my son!"
XIX.
"Ay!" murmur'd the Soeur Seraphine . . . "heart to heart!
THERE, at least, I have fail'd not! Fulfill'd is my part?
Accomplish'd my mission? One act crowns the whole.
Do I linger? Nay, be it so, then! . . . Soul to soul!"
She knelt down, and pray'd. Still the boy slumber'd on,
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