| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Touchstone by Edith Wharton: Flamel as a shield against his wife's scrutiny was only a shade
less humiliating than to reckon on his wife as a defence against
Flamel.
He felt a contradictory movement of annoyance at the latter's
ready acceptance, and the two men drove in silence to the station.
As they passed the bookstall in the waiting-room Flamel lingered a
moment and the eyes of both fell on Margaret Aubyn's name,
conspicuously displayed above a counter stacked with the familiar
volumes.
"We shall be late, you know," Glennard remonstrated, pulling out
his watch.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Child of Storm by H. Rider Haggard: know how long he has to reign?"
Now, those of the inner circle of the spectators, who at these
"smellings-out" act as a kind of chorus, looked at the King, and, seeing
that he shook his head vigorously, stretched out their right hands,
holding the thumb downwards, and said simultaneously in a cold, low
voice:
"Izwa!" (That is, "We hear you.")
Zikali stamped upon this set of markings.
"It is well," he said. "He who sits upon the Throne does not desire to
know how long he has to reign, and therefore the dust has forgotten and
shows it not to me."
 Child of Storm |