| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: his part to admiration as an innocent man and stranger, both at La
Force and at the Conciergerie. But now, broken by grief, and by two
deaths--for he had died twice over during that dreadful night--he was
Jacques Collin once more. The warder was astounded to find that the
Spanish priest needed no telling as to the way to the prison-yard. The
perfect actor forgot his part; he went down the corkscrew stairs in
the Tour Bonbec as one who knew the Conciergerie.
"Bibi-Lupin is right," said the turnkey to himself; "he is an old
stager; he is Jacques Collin."
At the moment when Trompe-la-Mort appeared in the sort of frame to his
figure made by the door into the tower, the prisoners, having made
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Where There's A Will by Mary Roberts Rinehart: "I've put myself on trial and been convicted of being a fool and
a failure. I've failed regularly and with precision at
everything I have tried. I've been going around so long trying
to find a place that I fit into, that I'm scarred as with many
battles. And now I'm on probation--for the last time. If this
doesn't go, I--I--"
"What?" she asked, leaning down to him. "You'll not--"
"Oh, no," he said, "nothing dramatic, of course. I could go
around the country in a buggy selling lightning-rods--"
She drew herself back as if she resented his refusal of her
sympathy.
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