| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Touchstone by Edith Wharton: would have hurt him less than the tears on his hands.
She spoke languidly, like a child emerging from a passion of
weeping. "It was for the money--?"
His lips shaped an assent.
"That was the inheritance--that we married on?"
"Yes."
She drew back and rose to her feet. He sat watching her as she
wandered away from him.
"You hate me," broke from him.
She made no answer.
"Say you hate me!" he persisted.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Camille by Alexandre Dumas: tears, put his two hands over his forehead and closed his eyes to
think, or to try to sleep, after giving me the pages written by
the hand of Marguerite. A few minutes after, a more rapid
breathing told me that Armand slept, but that light sleep which
the least sound banishes.
This is what I read; I copy it without adding or omitting a
syllable:
To-day is the 15th December. I have been ill three or four days.
This morning I stayed in bed. The weather is dark, I am sad;
there is no one by me. I think of you, Armand. And you, where are
you, while I write these lines? Far from Paris, far, far, they
Camille |
