| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie: hint in the same careless fashion. Was this a hint? What exactly
lay behind those last brief words? Did he mean that, after all,
he had not abandoned the case; that, secretly, he would be
working on it still while----
Her meditations were interrupted by Julius, who adjured her to
"get right in."
"You're looking kind of thoughtful," he remarked as they started
off. "Did the old guy say anything more?"
Tuppence opened her mouth impulsively, and then shut it again.
Sir James's words sounded in her ears: "Never tell all you
know--not even to the person you know best." And like a flash
Secret Adversary |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Daughter of Eve by Honore de Balzac: thought nothing of in him; the world hastens to excuse them. Men who
might otherwise be inclined to despise him shake hands with him,
fearing that the day may come when they will need him. He has, in
fact, so many friends that he wishes for enemies.
Judged from a literary point of view, Nathan lacks style and
cultivation. Like most young men, ambitious of literary fame, he
disgorges to-day what he acquired yesterday. He has neither the time
nor the patience to write carefully; he does not observe, but he
listens. Incapable of constructing a vigorously framed plot, he
sometimes makes up for it by the impetuous ardor of his drawing. He
"does passion," to use a term of the literary argot; but instead of
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