| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Lesson of the Master by Henry James: that the late accomplished lady was the influence that ruled his
life? What catastrophe could be more cruel than the extinction of
such an influence? This was to be exactly the tone taken by St.
George in answering his young friend upwards of a month later. He
made no allusion of course to their important discussion. He spoke
of his wife as frankly and generously as if he had quite forgotten
that occasion, and the feeling of deep bereavement was visible in
his words. "She took everything off my hands - off my mind. She
carried on our life with the greatest art, the rarest devotion, and
I was free, as few men can have been, to drive my pen, to shut
myself up with my trade. This was a rare service - the highest she
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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 The Pool in the Desert by Sara Jeanette Duncan: well say at once that on the night before she had made up her mind,
had brought herself to the point, and had written to Mrs. Innes, at
'Two Gables', all the facts, in so far as she was acquainted with
them, connected with Frederick Prendergast's death. She was very
much ashamed of herself, poor girl; she was aware that, through her
postponement, Horace Innes would now see his problem in all its
bitterness, make his choice with his eyes wide open. If it had only
happened before he knew--anything about her!
She charged herself with having deliberately waited, and then spent
an exhausting hour trying to believe that she had drifted
unconsciously to the point of their mutual confession. Whatever the
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