| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Duchesse de Langeais by Honore de Balzac: More than three weeks went by. Mme de Langeais wrote again and
again, and no answer came from Montriveau. At last she gave out
that she was ill, to gain a dispensation from attendance on the
Princess and from social duties. She was only at home to her
father the Duc de Navarreins, her aunt the Princesse de
Blamont-Chauvry, the old Vidame de Pamiers (her maternal
great-uncle), and to her husband's uncle, the Duc de Grandlieu.
These persons found no difficulty in believing that the Duchess
was ill, seeing that she grew thinner and paler and more dejected
every day. The vague ardour of love, the smart of wounded pride,
the continual prick of the only scorn that could touch her, the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from An International Episode by Henry James: "You are always there," he said, "and that's reason enough
for my not going."
"I don't see why. There is enough for both of us."
"I don't care to be a witness of your--your reckless passion,"
said Percy Beaumont.
Lord Lambeth looked at him with a cold eye and for a moment said nothing.
"It's not so obvious as you might suppose," he rejoined dryly,
"considering what a demonstrative beggar I am."
"I don't want to know anything about it--nothing whatever,"
said Beaumont. "Your mother asks me everytime she sees me whether
I believe you are really lost--and Lady Pimlico does the same.
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