| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: garrulous.
"--I was, naturally, making my toilet, and as I looked mechanically
about me--"
"Through the window?" asked Antonin.
"Certainly; my dressing-room opens on the street. Now you know, of
course, that Poupart has put the stranger into one of the rooms
exactly opposite to mine--"
"One room, mamma!" interrupted Ernestine. "The count occupies three
rooms! The little groom, dressed all in black, is in the first. They
have made a salon of the next, and the Unknown sleeps in the third."
"Then he has half the rooms in the inn," remarked Mademoiselle
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: which he followed passed through a mountain-district where the settlements
were few and far between; and on the second day of his journey, after a
weary ride of hours, he was dismayed to find that he could not reached his
intended halting-place until late in the night. He had reason to be
anxious;-- for a heavy snowstorm came on, with an intensely cold wind; and
the horse showed signs of exhaustion. But in that trying moment, Tomotada
unexpectedly perceived the thatched room of a cottage on the summit of a
near hill, where willow-trees were growing. With difficulty he urged his
tired animal to the dwelling; and he loudly knocked upon the storm-doors,
which had been closed against the wind. An old woman opened them, and cried
out compassionately at the sight of the handsome stranger: "Ah, how
Kwaidan |
