| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lesser Bourgeoisie by Honore de Balzac: everything. Money embroils the best friends, and leads to actions they
never foresaw. Therefore reflect; you can come and see me again in a
few days. It is possible that between now and then you will find some
better investment; and I myself, who am doing at this moment a thing I
don't altogether like, may have found other difficulties which I do
not now expect."
This threat, adroitly thrown out as an afterthought, was intended to
immediately clinch the matter.
"I have reflected carefully," said the pious woman, "and I feel sure
that in the hands of so religious a man as monsieur I run no risks."
Taking from her bosom a little pocket-book, she pulled out twenty-five
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Blix by Frank Norris: sofas robed in white drugget. A gold-and-white effect had been
striven for throughout the room. The walls had been tinted
instead of papered, and bunches of hand-painted pink flowers tied
up with blue ribbons straggled from one corner of the ceiling.
Across one angle of the room straddled a brass easel upholding a
crayon portrait of Travis at the age of nine, "enlarged from a
photograph." A yellow drape ornamented one corner of the frame,
while another drape of blue depended from one end of the
mantelpiece.
The piano, upon which nobody ever played, balanced the easel in an
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