| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: to challenge him. "Whom do you mean by `he'?"
"Peter Quint--you devil!" His face gave again, round the room,
its convulsed supplication. "WHERE?"
They are in my ears still, his supreme surrender of the name
and his tribute to my devotion. "What does he matter now,
my own?--what will he EVER matter? _I_ have you,"
I launched at the beast, "but he has lost you forever!"
Then, for the demonstration of my work, "There, THERE!"
I said to Miles.
But he had already jerked straight round, stared, glared again,
and seen but the quiet day. With the stroke of the loss I was
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart: introduced themselves as the coroner of the county and two
detectives from the city. The coroner led the way at once to the
locked wing, and with the aid of one of the detectives examined
the rooms and the body. The other detective, after a short
scrutiny of the dead man, busied himself with the outside of the
house. It was only after they had got a fair idea of things as
they were that they sent for me.
I received them in the living-room, and I had made up my mind
exactly what to tell. I had taken the house for the summer, I
said, while the Armstrongs were in California. In spite of a
rumor among the servants about strange noises--I cited Thomas--
The Circular Staircase |
