The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Unconscious Comedians by Honore de Balzac: a hundred louis, when I lost at lansquenet this morning, at Jenny
Cadine's."
"You must indeed me hard-up if you can't oblige this poor Bixiou,"
said Leon de Lora; "for he can be very sharp-tongued when he hasn't a
sou."
"Well," said Bixiou, "I could never say anything but good of Vauvinet;
he's full of goods."
"My dear friend," said Vauvinet, "if I had the money, I couldn't
possibly discount, even at fifty per cent, notes which are drawn by
your porter. Ravenouillet's paper isn't in demand. He's not a
Rothschild. I warn you that his notes are worn thin; you had better
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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 Chance by Joseph Conrad: lovers should at the moment of meeting? But that fine forgetfulness
was surely impossible to Anthony the seaman directly after the
wrangling interview with Fyne the emissary of an order of things
which stops at the edge of the sea. How much he was disturbed I
couldn't tell because I did not know what that impetuous lover had
had to listen to.
"Going to take the old fellow to sea with them," I said. "Well I
really don't see what else they could have done with him. You told
your brother-in-law what you thought of it? I wonder how he took
it."
"Very improperly," repeated Fyne. "His manner was offensive,
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