| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Merry Men by Robert Louis Stevenson: night? for surely they were cries of some creature in suffering.'
'The wind,' returned Felipe, looking in the fire.
I took his hand in mine, at which, thinking it to be a caress, he
smiled with a brightness of pleasure that came near disarming my
resolve. But I trod the weakness down. 'The wind,' I repeated;
'and yet I think it was this hand,' holding it up, 'that had first
locked me in.' The lad shook visibly, but answered never a word.
'Well,' said I, 'I am a stranger and a guest. It is not my part
either to meddle or to judge in your affairs; in these you shall
take your sister's counsel, which I cannot doubt to be excellent.
But in so far as concerns my own I will be no man's prisoner, and I
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: "Why don't you keep that baby quiet?" said the Man, who had just drunk
enough beer to make him feel very brave and master of his house.
"If you don't keep that baby quiet you'll know why later on."
They burst out laughing as she stumbled back into the bedroom.
"I don't believe Holy Mary could keep him quiet," she murmured. "Did Jesus
cry like this when He was little? If I was not so tired perhaps I could do
it; but the baby just knows that I want to go to sleep. And there is going
to be another one."
She flung the baby on the bed, and stood looking at him with terror.
From the next room there came the jingle of glasses and the warm sound of
laughter.
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