| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Court Life in China by Isaac Taylor Headland: sacrificial hall, and when the servants from without announced a
visitor, this curtain was drawn aside, and as the guest and a
flood of light entered, the mourners began their wailing which
they continued until he had departed. These visitors remained but
a moment, while the ladies who were there were all near
relatives, and were dressed either entirely or partially in
sackcloth.
The room in which these ladies knelt was draped in white. The
cushions were all covered with white, and all porcelain and other
decorations had been removed. The floor was covered with a heavy
rope matting, on which the ladies knelt--all except the Princess,
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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 The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: house. When the deposed king of her heart came into dinner, she said:
"I have upset the pot, my dear. Madame de la Baudraye requests the
pleasure of your company at the /Rocher de Cancale/."
She carried off Lousteau, quite bewildered by the light and easy
manners assumed by the woman who till that morning has been the slave
of his least whim, for she too had been acting a farce for two months
past.
"Madame de la Baudraye is figged out as if for a first night," said he
--/une premiere/, the slang abbreviation for a first performance.
"Do not forget the respect you owe to Madame de la Baudraye," said
Dinah gravely. "I do not mean to understand such a word as /figged
 The Muse of the Department |