| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Adventure by Jack London: spoken. "A fellow has the right to make love to her unless she's
your--well, perhaps it was an error after all, due to ignorance,
perfectly excusable, on my part. I might have seen it with half an
eye if I'd listened to the gossip on the beach. All Guvutu and
Tulagi were laughing about it. I was a fool, and I certainly made
the mistake of taking the situation on its assumed innocent face-
value."
So angry was Sheldon becoming that the face and form of the other
seemed to vibrate and oscillate before his eyes. Yet outwardly
Sheldon was calm and apparently weary of the discussion.
"Please keep her out of the conversation," he said.
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: the manner of certain theatres, which give ten last performances of a
piece that is paying. And how many promises they made! How many solemn
pledges did not Dinah exact and the unblushing journalist give her!
Dinah, with superiority of the Superior Woman, accompanied Lousteau,
in the face of all the world, as far as Cosne, with her mother and
little La Baudraye. When, ten days later, Madame de la Baudraye saw in
her drawing-room at La Baudraye, Monsieur de Clagny, Gatien, and
Gravier, she found an opportunity of saying to each in turn:
"I owe it to Monsieur Lousteau that I discovered that I had not been
loved for my own sake."
And what noble speeches she uttered, on man, on the nature of his
 The Muse of the Department |