| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen: connection there could be between Meyrick and Mrs. Herbert, or
what link between her and these designs?"
"Ah, who can say? It is possible that the matter may
end here, and we shall never know, but in my own opinion this
Helen Vaughan, or Mrs. Herbert, is only the beginning. She
will come back to London, Austin; depend on it, she will come
back, and we shall hear more about her then. I doubt it will
be very pleasant news."
VI
THE SUICIDES
Lord Argentine was a great favourite in London
The Great God Pan |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: the effect they produced on the Lunch Club's distinguished guest.
Osric Dane's impassive features suddenly melted to an expression
of the warmest human sympathy, and edging her chair toward Mrs.
Roby's she asked: "Did he really? And--did you find he was
right?"
Mrs. Ballinger, in whom annoyance at Mrs. Roby's unwonted
assumption of prominence was beginning to displace gratitude for
the aid she had rendered, could not consent to her being allowed,
by such dubious means, to monopolise the attention of their
guest. If Osric Dane had not enough self-respect to resent Mrs.
Roby's flippancy, at least the Lunch Club would do so in the
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Pool in the Desert by Sara Jeanette Duncan: certain things had apparently been taken for granted--but I was only
one of the little circle that wondered how soon it might venture
upon open congratulations. The rest of us knew as much, it seemed,
as Edward Harris did. Lady Pilkey asked him point-blank, and he
said what his daughter found to like in the fellow the Lord only
knew, and he was glad to say that at present he had no announcement
to make. Lady Pilkey told me she thought it very romantic--like
marrying a newspaper correspondent--but I pointed to a lifelong
task, with a pension attached, of teaching fat young Bengalis to
draw, and asked her if she saw extravagant romance in that.
They wrote up from Calcutta that they would like to have a look at
|
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 Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen: master it!' says he; but yet he cannot master it, however long he plays."
* The word mahogany can be understood, in Danish, as having two meanings.
In general, it means the reddish-brown wood itself; but in jest, it signifies
"excessively fine," which arose from an anecdote of Nyboder, in Copenhagen,
(the seamen's quarter.) A sailor's wife, who was always proud and fine, in her
way, came to her neighbor, and complained that she had got a splinter in her
finger. "What of?" asked the neighbor's wife. "It is a mahogany splinter,"
said the other. "Mahogany! It cannot be less with you!" exclaimed the
woman-and thence the proverb, "It is so mahogany!"-(that is, so excessively
fine)--is derived.
One night the stranger awoke--he slept with the doors of the balcony open--the
Fairy Tales |
