The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Pocket Diary Found in the Snow by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: finished the story.
"Would you answer me several questions?" asked Muller. The old
gentleman answered quickly, "Any one, every one."
"Miss Langen is rich?"
"She has a fortune of over three hundred thousand guldens, and
considerable land."
"Has she any relatives?"
"No," replied Fellner harshly. But a thought must have flashed
through his brain for he started suddenly and murmured, "Yes, she
has one relative, a step-brother."
The detective gave an exclamation of surprise.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Christ in Flanders by Honore de Balzac: between the Island of Cadzand and the Flemish coast was kept up by a
boat which carried passengers from one shore to the other. Middelburg,
the chief town in the island, destined to become so famous in the
annals of Protestantism, at that time only numbered some two or three
hundred hearths; and the prosperous town of Ostend was an obscure
haven, a straggling village where pirates dwelt in security among the
fishermen and the few poor merchants who lived in the place.
But though the town of Ostend consisted altogether of some score of
houses and three hundred cottages, huts or hovels built of the
driftwood of wrecked vessels, it nevertheless rejoiced in the
possession of a governor, a garrison, a forked gibbet, a convent, and
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