| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from At the Sign of the Cat & Racket by Honore de Balzac: young proprietors hoped to inveigle the old draper into some risky
discount, which, as was his wont, he never refused point-blank. Two
good Normandy horses were dying of their own fat in the stables of the
big house; Madame Guillaume never used them but to drag her on Sundays
to high Mass at the parish church. Three times a week the worthy
couple kept open house. By the influence of his son-in-law
Sommervieux, Monsieur Guillaume had been named a member of the
consulting board for the clothing of the Army. Since her husband had
stood so high in office, Madame Guillaume had decided that she must
receive; her rooms were so crammed with gold and silver ornaments, and
furniture, tasteless but of undoubted value, that the simplest room in
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Dynamiter by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Van De Grift Stevenson: abject dumbness, he stared upon the driver. He had not one
penny.
'Hillo,' said the driver, 'don't seem well.'
'Lost my money,' said M'Guire, in tones so faint and strange
that they surprised his hearing.
The man looked through the trap. 'I dessay,' said he:
'you've left your bag.'
M'Guire half unconsciously fetched it out; and looking on
that black continent at arm's length, withered inwardly and
felt his features sharpen as with mortal sickness.
'This is not mine,' said he. 'Your last fare must have left
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