| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Wrecker by Stevenson & Osbourne: elaborate business table; spirits and soda-water (with the mark
of Schweppe, no less) stood ready on a butler's tray, and in one
corner, behind a half-drawn curtain, I spied a camp-bed and a
capacious tub. Such a room in Barbizon astonished the
beholder, like the glories of the cave of Monte Cristo.
"Now," said he, "we are quiet. Sit down, if you don't mind, and
tell me your story all through."
I did as he asked, beginning with the day when Jim showed me
the passage in the _Daily Occidental_, and winding up with the
stamp album and the Chailly postmark. It was a long business;
and Carthew made it longer, for he was insatiable of details;
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Mistress Wilding by Rafael Sabatini: Some part of those dark hours he spent in bitter reviling of Wilding,
of himself, and even of his sister, whom he blamed for this awful
situation into which he had tumbled; at other times he wept from
self-pity and sheer fright.
Once, indeed, he imagined that he saw light, that he saw a way out
of the peril that hemmed him in. His mind turned for a moment in
the direction that Trenchard had feared it might. He bethought him of
his association with the Monmouth Cause - into which he had been
beguiled by the sordid hope of gain - and of Wilding's important
share in that same business. He was even moved to rise and ride that
very night for Exeter to betray to Albemarle the Cause itself, so that
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