| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lock and Key Library by Julian Hawthorne, Ed.: fourth in that house. Accordingly, on the fourth morning I
summoned the woman who kept the house and attended on us, and told
her that the rooms did not quite suit us, and we would not stay out
our week. She said dryly, 'I know why; you have stayed longer than
any other lodger. Few ever stayed a second night; none before you
a third. But I take it they have been very kind to you.'
"'They,--who?' I asked, affecting to smile.
"'Why, they who haunt the house, whoever they are. I don't mind
them. I remember them many years ago, when I lived in this house,
not as a servant; but I know they will be the death of me some day.
I don't care,--I'm old, and must die soon anyhow; and then I shall
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Collection of Antiquities by Honore de Balzac: presumptive of the house. Chesnel turned the unlucky letters over one
by one, and asked the enemy to keep the secret. This he engaged to do
if he were paid within forty-eight hours. He was pressed for money he
had obliged various manufacturers; and there followed a series of the
financial fictions by which neither notaries nor borrowers are
deceived. Chesnel's eyes were dim; he could scarcely keep back the
tears. There was but one way of raising the money; he must mortgage
his own lands up to their full value. But when du Croisier learned the
difficulty in the way of repayment, he forgot that he was hard
pressed; he no longer wanted ready money, and suddenly came out with a
proposal to buy the old lawyer's property. The sale was completed
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