| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: wears one a month, with two soft collars."
"And then," whispered Fraulein Lisa, "he said to me, 'Indeed you please me.
I shall, perhaps, write to your mother.'"
Small wonder that we were a little violently excited, a little
expostulatory.
Suddenly the door opened and admitted the Baron.
Followed a complete and deathlike silence.
He came in slowly, hesitated, took up a toothpick from a dish on the top of
the piano, and went out again.
When the door was closed we raised a triumphant cry! It was the first time
he had ever been known to enter the salon. Who could tell what the Future
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: Duchesse de Maille.--Heh?' he added after a short silence, during
which he looked at his prisoner.
"Beauvoir, seeing that he was safe under lock and key, did not imagine
that his position could be any the worse if his real name were known.
" 'Well, and supposing I were the Chevalier de Beauvoir, what should I
gain by that?' said he.
" 'Oh, there is everything to be gained by it,' replied the jailer in
an undertone. 'I have been paid to help you to get away; but wait a
minute! If I were suspected in the smallest degree, I should be shot
out of hand. So I have said that I will do no more in the matter than
will just earn the money.--Look here,' said he, taking a small file
 The Muse of the Department |