| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Marriage Contract by Honore de Balzac: brother notary. Curious to know the remedy that Mathias had found in a
state of things which had seemed to him beyond all other relief, he
said, addressing the old man:--
"What is it you propose?"
"Natalie, my dear child, leave us," said Madame Evangelista.
"Mademoiselle is not in the way," replied Mathias, smiling. "I am
going to speak in her interests as well as in those of Monsieur le
comte."
Silence reigned for a moment, during which time everybody present,
oppressed with anxiety, awaited the allocution of the venerable notary
with unspeakable curiosity.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Soul of a Bishop by H. G. Wells: finds in a don who has gone to Hampstead and fallen amongst
advanced thinkers and got mixed up with the Fabian Society. His
anxious eyes and faintly propitiatory manner suggested an
impending appeal.
Dr. Brighton-Pomfrey had the savoir-faire of a successful
consultant; he prided himself on being all things to all men; but
just for an instant he was at a loss what sort of thing he had to
be here. Then he adopted the genial, kindly, but by no means
lavishly generous tone advisable in the case of a man who has
suffered considerable social deterioration without being very
seriously to blame.
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