| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Two Brothers by Honore de Balzac: the worst condition in the world is to be governed by such brutes."
It was about half-past two in the afternoon when the old man got home.
Kouski opened the door in tears,--that is, by Max's orders, he gave
signs of weeping.
"Oh! Monsieur, Madame has gone away, and taken Vedie with her!"
"Gone--a--way!" said the old man in a strangled voice.
The blow was so violent that Rouget sat down on the stairs, unable to
stand. A moment after, he rose, looked about the hall, into the
kitchen, went up to his own room, searched all the chambers, and
returned to the salon, where he threw himself into a chair, and burst
into tears.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Second Home by Honore de Balzac: infect everything, from the mistress' cap down to her pincushion; eyes
are not honest, the folks are more like shadows, and the lady of the
house seems perched on a throne of ice.
One morning poor Granville discerned with grief and pain that all the
symptoms of bigotry had invaded his home. There are in the world
different spheres in which the same effects are seen though produced
by dissimilar causes. Dulness hedges such miserable homes round with
walls of brass, enclosing the horrors of the desert and the infinite
void. The home is not so much a tomb as that far worse thing--a
convent. In the center of this icy sphere the lawyer could study his
wife dispassionately. He observed, not without keen regret, the
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