Today's Stichomancy for Rebecca Gayheart

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Finished by H. Rider Haggard:

acquainted with the habits of this people, knew that I was witnessing a conflict between two they considered to be respectively a spiritual and an earthly king. It is my belief that unless he were first addressed, Zikali would have sat all night without opening his lips. Possibly Cetewayo would have done the same if the impatience of public opinion had allowed him. At any was rate it was he who gave way.

"Makosi, master of many Spirits, on behalf of the Council and the People of the Zulus I, the King, greet you here in the place that you have chosen," said Cetewayo.

Zikali made no answer.

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac:

the conviction of Modeste's love, which had now seized upon him as upon the rest, seemed as remote from the discussion as Gobenheim had been the night before.

"Well, what's the matter with you, Butscha?" cried Madame Latournelle; "one would really think you hadn't a friend in the world."

Tears shone in the eyes of the poor fellow, who was the son of a Swedish sailor, and whose mother was dead.

"I have no one in the world but you," he answered with a troubled voice; "and your compassion is so much a part of your religion that I can never lose it--and I will never deserve to lose it."

This answer struck the sensitive chord of true delicacy in the minds

Modeste Mignon

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The House of Dust by Conrad Aiken:

Go down behind my neighbor's poplar branches,-- Just where you used to sit,--I'm sure you'd come. This year, they say, the springtime will be early.

XI. CONVERSATION: UNDERTONES

What shall we talk of? Li Po? Hokusai? You narrow your long dark eyes to fascinate me; You smile a little. . . .Outside, the night goes by. I walk alone in a forest of ghostly trees . . . Your pale hands rest palm downwards on your knees.

'These lines--converging, they suggest such distance! The soul is drawn away, beyond horizons.

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:

Or she is in Europe.'"

"The young people had brought a basket with flowers from their place, and now laid them over several of the grassy mounds. 'Give me some of yours,' said one to the other, presently; 'I've not enough for grandmother's.'"

"Ethel took me rather sharply by the arm. 'Did you hear that?' she asked."

"'It can't be she, you know,' said I. 'He would have come back from Europe.'"

"But we found it out at lunch. It was she, and she had been dead for fifteen years."

"Ethel and I talked it over in the train going up to town on Monday morning. We had by that time grown calmer. 'If it is not false