| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Man of Business by Honore de Balzac: Maxime burst out laughing at the idea of little Croizeau's finding him
a buyer. The firm of Maxime and Chocardelle was losing two thousand
francs, it is true, but what was the loss compared with four glorious
thousand-franc notes in hand? 'Four thousand francs of live coin!--
there are moments in one's life when one would sign bills for eight
thousand to get them,' as the Count said to me.
"Two days later the Count must see the furniture himself, and took the
four thousand francs upon him. The sale had been arranged; thanks to
little Croizeau's diligence, he pushed matters on; he had 'come round'
the widow, as he expressed it. It was Maxime's intention to have all
the furniture removed at once to a lodging in a new house in the Rue
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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 Stories From the Old Attic by Robert Harris: for the lady in waiting, she was so stricken with grief over the
king's actions that she very nearly took her own life. But the
princess had commanded her never to reveal the secret, regardless of
the consequences, and the lady in waiting feared that the princess
would be exposed by such an action. So the woman, helpless to
remedy the situation, instead fled the palace in tears.
As the traders proceeded out of the kingdom, the princess resolved
that, whatever should happen to herself, she would not see the child
grow up a slave. She therefore watched carefully for an opportunity
and one night sneaked off from the traders as far as she could get
in the cold and dark, and put the child near a hut, hoping and
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