Today's Stichomancy for Adriana Lima

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The House of Dust by Conrad Aiken:

And shook its beauty upon us and died away? The long cold streets extend once more before us. The red sun drops, the walls grow grey.

VIII. THE BOX WITH SILVER HANDLES

Well,--it was two days after my husband died-- Two days! And the earth still raw above him. And I was sweeping the carpet in their hall. In number four--the room with the red wall-paper-- Some chorus girls and men were singing that song 'They'll soon be lighting candles Round a box with silver handles'--and hearing them sing it

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Rescue by Joseph Conrad:

came to help me and as soon as he found I was not there he began to plot with Tengga. Now he has made a move--a clever move; a cleverer move than he thinks. Why? I'll tell you why. Because I, Tom Lingard, haven't a single white man aboard this brig I can trust. Not one. I only just discovered my mate's got the notion I am some kind of pirate. And all your yacht people think the same. It is as though you had brought a curse on me in your yacht. Nobody believes me. Good God! What have I come to! Even those two--look at them--I say look at them! By all the stars they doubt me! Me! . . ."

He pointed at Hassim and Immada. The girl seemed frightened.

The Rescue

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from La Grenadiere by Honore de Balzac:

the lamplight.

"My son!" she said. There was something so solemn in the dying woman's tones, that the power of her wrought-up soul produced a violent reaction on the boy; he felt an intense heat pass through the marrow of his bones.

"What is it, mother?"

"Listen! To-morrow all will be over for me. We shall see each other no more. To-morrow you will be a man, my child. So I am obliged to make some arrangements, which must remain a secret, known only to us. Take the key of my little table. That is it. Now open the drawer. You will find two sealed papers to the left. There is the name of LOUIS on one,

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 Lucile by Owen Meredith:

Another consoles him! another receives The soft speech which from silence your absence relieves!"

XI.

"You mistake, sir!" . . . responded a voice, calm, severe, And sad, . . . "You mistake, sir! that other is here." Eugene and Matilda both started. "Lucile!" With a half-stifled scream, as she felt herself reel From the place where she stood, cried Matilda. "Ho, oh! What! eaves-dropping, madam?" . . . the Duke cried. . . "And so