| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Another Study of Woman by Honore de Balzac: condition was evident; the horrible doubts that had fermented in me
increased it. At last I found an opening for putting in these words:
'You have had no one with you this morning?' making a pretext of the
uneasiness I had felt in the fear lest she should have disposed of her
time after receiving my first note.--'Ah!' she exclaimed, 'only a man
could have such ideas! As if I could think of anything but your
suffering. Till the moment when I received your second note I could
think only of how I could contrive to see you.'--'And you were
alone?'--'Alone,' said she, looking at me with a face of innocence so
perfect that it must have been his distrust of such a look as that
which made the Moor kill Desdemona. As she lived alone in the house,
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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 Marie by H. Rider Haggard: took place between us can best be left to the imagination, since the
talk of lovers, even in such circumstances, is not interesting to
others. Also, in a sense, it is too sacred to repeat. One sentence I
will set down, however, because in the light of after events I feel that
it was prophetic, and not spoken merely by chance. It was at the end of
our talk, as she was handing me back the pistol that I had given her for
a certain dreadful purpose.
"Three times you have saved my life, Allan--once at Maraisfontein, once
from starvation, and now from Dingaan, whose touch would have meant my
death. I wonder whether it will ever be my turn to save yours?"
She looked down for a little while, then lifted her head and laid her
Marie |
