| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Reef by Edith Wharton: always, always taken in!"
She dramatized her explanation so vividly that Darrow felt
as if his point were gained.
"Ah, but this confirms your vocation--of course," he cried,
"you must see Cerdine!" and, seeing her face fall at this
reminder of the change in her prospects, he hastened to set
forth his plan. As he did so, he saw how easy it was to
explain things to her. She would either accept his
suggestion, or she would not: but at least she would waste
no time in protestations and objections, or any vain
sacrifice to the idols of conformity. The conviction that
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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 The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: It's far worse than I dreamed--they're lost!"
VIII
What I had said to Mrs. Grose was true enough: there were in the matter I
had put before her depths and possibilities that I lacked resolution to sound;
so that when we met once more in the wonder of it we were of a common mind
about the duty of resistance to extravagant fancies. We were to keep our
heads if we should keep nothing else--difficult indeed as that might be in
the face of what, in our prodigious experience, was least to be questioned.
Late that night, while the house slept, we had another talk in my room,
when she went all the way with me as to its being beyond doubt that I
had seen exactly what I had seen. To hold her perfectly in the pinch
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