| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: "He wrote out a cheque for fifty thousand francs on the Bank of
France, and handed it to the Countess.
" 'Now,' continued he with a smile, such a smile as you will see in
portraits of M. Voltaire, 'now I will give you the rest of the amount
in bills, thirty thousand francs' worth of paper as good as bullion.
This gentleman here has just said, "My bills will be met when they are
due," ' added he, producing certain drafts bearing the Count's
signature, all protested the day before at the request of some of the
confraternity, who had probably made them over to him (Gobseck) at a
considerably reduced figure.
"The young man growled out something, in which the words 'Old
Gobseck |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Copy-Cat & Other Stories by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: tion without offending others."
But Imogen was not in the least nonplussed.
She finished her line of thought. "And with all her
sweet disposition," said she, "nobody can deny
that dear Annie is peculiar, and peculiarity always
makes people difficult for other people. Of course
it is horribly peculiar what she is proposing to do
now. That in itself will be enough to convince
people that dear Annie must be difficult. Only a
difficult person could do such a strange thing."
"Who is going to get up and get breakfast in the
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