| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: how typical this dressing-table is of you!"
"Why? What's the matter with it?" said Hammond.
"If it were floating in eternity I should say 'John!'" laughed Janey,
staring at the big bottle of hair tonic, the wicker bottle of eau-de-
Cologne, the two hair-brushes, and a dozen new collars tied with pink tape.
"Is this all your luggage?"
"Hang my luggage!" said Hammond; but all the same he liked being laughed at
by Janey. "Let's talk. Let's get down to things. Tell me"--and as Janey
perched on his knees he leaned back and drew her into the deep, ugly chair-
-"tell me you're really glad to be back, Janey."
"Yes, darling, I am glad," she said.
|
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 Within the Tides by Joseph Conrad: could be more fatal than to have his deception unveiled otherwise
than by personal confession), this talk sounded like encouragement
or a warning from that man who seemed to him to be very brazen and
very subtle. It was like being bullied by the dead and cajoled by
the living into a throw of dice for a supreme stake.
Renouard went away to some distance from the house and threw
himself down in the shade of a tree. He lay there perfectly still
with his forehead resting on his folded arms, light-headed and
thinking. It seemed to him that he must be on fire, then that he
had fallen into a cool whirlpool, a smooth funnel of water swirling
about with nauseating rapidity. And then (it must have been a
Within the Tides |
