| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Ann Veronica by H. G. Wells: necessary to life for me. I've never met any one like you. To
have you is all important. Nothing else weighs against it.
Morals only begin when that is settled. I sha'n't care a rap if
we can never marry. I'm not a bit afraid of anything--scandal,
difficulty, struggle. . . . I rather want them. I do want
them."
"You'll get them," he said. "This means a plunge."
"Are you afraid?"
"Only for you! Most of my income will vanish. Even unbelieving
biological demonstrators must respect decorum; and besides, you
see--you were a student. We shall have--hardly any money."
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Collection of Antiquities by Honore de Balzac: this journey? Victurnien must appear as befits his rank at court."
"Oh! I have borrowed money on Le Jard, mademoiselle."
"What? You have nothing left! Ah, heaven! what can we do to reward
you?"
"You can take the hundred thousand francs which I hold at your
disposal. You can understand that the loan was negotiated in
confidence, so that it might not reflect on you; for it is known in
the town that I am closely connected with the d'Esgrignon family."
Tears came into Mlle. Armande's eyes. Chesnel saw them, took a fold of
the noble woman's dress in his hands, and kissed it.
"Never mind," he said, "a lad must sow his wild oats. In great salons
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: it was essential to hide everything from her husband, and that
she would have the strength and skill to do so; but now, when she
saw his broad, mild, happy smile, and shining, joyful eyes, she
felt that to deceive this man was as vile, as revolting, and as
impossible and out of her power as to bear false witness, to
steal, or to kill, and in a flash she resolved to tell him all
that had happened. Letting him kiss and embrace her, she sank
down on her knees before him and hid her face.
"What is it, what is it, little mother?" he asked tenderly. "Were
you homesick?"
She raised her face, red with shame, and gazed at him with a
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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 Mother by Owen Wister: as it was called, was far less rapid than the Separator. And when I
learned that one house in St. Louis alone twirled 50,000 eggs in a day,
the possible profits of the Egg Trust became clear to me. But they were
not so clear to Ethel. She said that you could not monopolise hens. That
they would always be laying eggs and putting it in the power of
competitors to hatch them by incubators. Nor did she have confidence in
the Pasteurised Feeder. 'Even if you get the parents to adopt it,' she
said, 'you cannot get the children. If they do not like the taste of the
milk as it comes out of the bottle through the Feeder, they will simply
not take it.'"
"'Well,' I answered, 'old Mrs. Beverly is holding on to hers.'"
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