| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Frances Waldeaux by Rebecca Davis: will never be dependent on my wife, so help me God! "
"No, George, no! Of course not. Don't speak so loud.
Only, I thought if she had a small sum of her own, she
would feel more comfortable, that's all."
In spite of his ill temper George threw himself into his
work with zeal. After a couple of months he came home
for a day. He was dressed with the quiet elegance which
once had been so important in his eyes.
His mother noted it shrewdly. "A man has more courage to
face life, decently clothed," she said to herself.
He did not come again until winter. Lucy happened to be
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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 Maitre Cornelius by Honore de Balzac: could he only kiss once more the hand of his lady, he still resolved
to venture all, impelled by the chivalrous and passionate spirit of
those days. He never supposed for a moment that the countess would
refuse him the soft happiness of love in the midst of such mortal
danger. The adventure was too perilous, too impossible not to be
attempted and carried out.
Suddenly all the bells in the town rang out the curfew,--a custom
fallen elsewhere into desuetude, but still observed in the provinces,
where venerable habits are abolished slowly. Though the lights were
not put out, the watchmen of each quarter stretched the chains across
the streets. Many doors were locked; the steps of a few belated
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