| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: nothing serious. After letting him talk in this discourteous way for
some little time, I thought it was time to put an end to the scene, so
I said in a rather peremptory tone:--
"As I wanted to sleep at night, I went to the school in a pelting
rain; I came back by moonlight; and I beg you to remark that monsieur,
who was so good as to escort me, has come upstairs to bid you good-
bye, because he leaves Paris to-morrow morning."
I have habitually enough power over Monsieur de l'Estorade to make
this call to order effective; but I saw that my husband was
displeased, and that instead of having made Monsieur Dorlange an easy
diversion, I had called down upon his head the ill-humor of my ogre,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Long Odds by H. Rider Haggard: great teeth had not crushed my thigh-bone; but I was losing a great deal
of blood, and had it not been for the timely arrival of Tom, with whose
aid I loosed the handkerchief from my wrist and tied it round my leg,
twisting it tight with a stick, I think that I should have bled to
death.
"Well, it was a just reward for my folly in trying to tackle a family of
lions single-handed. The odds were too long. I have been lame ever
since, and shall be to my dying day; in the month of March the wound
always troubles me a great deal, and every three years it breaks out
raw.
"I need scarcely add that I never traded the lot of ivory at Sikukuni's.
 Long Odds |