| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart: odd enough, but not intrinsically of great value. Its
interest for me lay in this: Liddy had found it lying in the top
of the hamper which had blocked the east-wing stairs.
That afternoon the Armstrongs' housekeeper, a youngish good-
looking woman, applied for Mrs. Ralston's place, and I was glad
enough to take her. She looked as though she might be equal to a
dozen of Liddy, with her snapping black eyes and heavy jaw. Her
name was Anne Watson, and I dined that evening for the first time
in three days.
CHAPTER III
MR. JOHN BAILEY APPEARS
The Circular Staircase |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Horse's Tale by Mark Twain: her eyes when her temper is up."
Then Dorcas went on, in her simple and earnest way, to furnish
illustrations.
"Look at that raven, Marse Tom. Would anybody befriend a raven but
that child? Of course they wouldn't; it ain't natural. Well, the
Injun boy had the raven tied up, and was all the time plaguing it
and starving it, and she pitied the po' thing, and tried to buy it
from the boy, and the tears was in her eyes. That was the girl-
twin, you see. She offered him her thimble, and he flung it down;
she offered him all the doughnuts she had, which was two, and he
flung them down; she offered him half a paper of pins, worth forty
|
