| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: Gaynor off, an hour earlier, on her return journey to Buffalo, he
had been wondering how he should put in the rest of the
afternoon. It was absurd, how he missed the girl. . . . Yes,
that was it; the desire to talk about her was, after all, at the
bottom of his impulse to call on Mrs. Vervain! It was absurd, if
you like--but it was delightfully rejuvenating. He could recall
the time when he had been afraid of being obvious: now he felt
that this return to the primitive emotions might be as
restorative as a holiday in the Canadian woods. And it was
precisely by the girl's candor, her directness, her lack of
complications, that he was taken. The sense that she might say
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Case of the Golden Bullet by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: "Are people talking about it?"
"I've heard some things said. They even say that this quarrel
was the reason for - her death."
"It's stupid nonsense!" exclaimed the servant. The old peddler
seemed to like the young man's honest indignation.
While they were talking, they had passed through a long corridor
and the young man laid his hand on one of the doors as the peddler
asked, "Can I see Miss Nanette alone?"
"Alone? Oho, she's engaged to me!"
"I know that," said the stranger, who seemed to be initiated into
all the doings of this household. "And I am an old man - all I
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