| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Whirligigs by O. Henry: angel. Really too high to be grasped."
"By me, yes."
She faced him suddenly. "My dear friend, would you
prefer your star fallen?" Lorison made a wide gesture.
"You push me to the bald fact," he declared; "you
are not in sympathy with my argument. But I will
answer you so. If I could reach my particular star, to
drag it down, I would not do it; but if it were fallen, I
would pick it up, and thank Heaven for the privilege."
They were silent for some minutes. Norah shivered,
and thrust her hands deep into the pockets of her jacket.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Witch, et. al by Anton Chekhov: sound of the beating of the hours; but the time seemed somehow
strange -- five was struck and then three.
"Oh Lord!" sighed the cook.
Looking at the windows, it was difficult to tell whether it was
still moonlight or whether the dawn had begun. Marya got up and
went out, and she could be heard milking the cows and saying,
"Stea-dy!" Granny went out, too. It was still dark in the hut,
but all the objects in it could be discerned.
Nikolay, who had not slept all night, got down from the stove. He
took his dress-coat out of a green box, put it on, and going to
the window, stroked the sleeves and took hold of the coat-tails
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: months' imprisonment. The landowner whose
oats had been stolen was among the audi-
ence. When the judge adjourned the court the
landowner approached, and shook hands, and the
judge entered into conversation with him. The
next case was about a stolen samovar. Then
there was a trial about some timber which had
been cut, to the detriment of the landowner.
Some peasants were being tried for having as-
saulted the constable of the district.
When the young Tsar again lost consciousness,
The Forged Coupon |
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 Ann Veronica by H. G. Wells: broken pale that made the garden-fence scalable, and gave access
to the fields behind, were still to be traced. And here against
a wall were the plum-trees. In spite of God and wasps and her
father, she had stolen plums; and once because of discovered
misdeeds, and once because she had realized that her mother was
dead, she had lain on her face in the unmown grass, beneath the
elm-trees that came beyond the vegetables, and poured out her
soul in weeping.
Remote little Ann Veronica! She would never know the heart of
that child again! That child had loved fairy princes with velvet
suits and golden locks, and she was in love with a real man named
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