| 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: dressed as an old costermonger woman, met him in front of the gardens
of the Elysee-Bourbon.
"Monsieur de Saint-Germain," said Contenson, giving his old chief the
name he was officially known by, "you have put me in the way of making
five hundred pieces (francs); but what I came here for was to tell you
that that damned Baron, before he gave me the shiners, had been to ask
questions at the house (the Prefecture of Police)."
"I shall want you, no doubt," replied Peyrade. "Look up numbers 7, 10,
and 21; we can employ those men without any one finding it out, either
at the Police Ministry or at the Prefecture."
Contenson went back to a post near the carriage in which Monsieur de
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lin McLean by Owen Wister: Jessamine's eyes were glistening, and she took him in her lap. She was
not going to tell him that he was too young this time. But whatever
things she had shaped to say to the boy were never said.
Through the noise of the gale came the steadier sound of the train, and
the girl rose quickly to preside over her ticket-office and duties behind
the railing in the front room of the station. The boy ran to the window
to watch the great event of Separ's day. The locomotive loomed out from
the yellow clots of drift, paused at the water-tank, and then with steam
and humming came slowly on by the platform. Slowly its long dust-choked
train emerged trundling behind it, and ponderously halted. There was no
one to go. No one came to buy a ticket of Jessamine. The conductor looked
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