| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Maitre Cornelius by Honore de Balzac: on the staircase sounded in the room of the apprentices, so that
Philippe did not lose a single movement of the miser and his sister
who were watching him. He undressed, lay down, pretended to sleep, and
employed the time during which the pair remained on the staircase, in
seeking means to get from his prison to the hotel de Poitiers.
About ten o'clock Cornelius and his sister, convinced that their new
inmate was sleeping, retired to their rooms. The young man studied
carefully the sounds they made in doing so, and thought he could
recognize the position of their apartments; they must, he believed,
occupy the whole second floor. Like all the houses of that period,
this floor was next below the roof, from which its windows projected,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories by Alice Dunbar: girl who spoke, and Tony's wife roused herself from her knitting
to rise and count out the multi-hued candy which should go in
exchange for the dingy nickel grasped in warm, damp fingers.
Three long sticks, carefully wrapped in crispest brown paper, and
a half dozen or more of pink candy fish for lagniappe, and the
little Jew girl sped away in blissful contentment. Tony's wife
resumed her knitting with a stifled sigh until the next customer
should come.
A low growl caused her to look up apprehensively. Tony himself
stood beetle-browed and huge in the small doorway.
"Get up from there," he muttered, "and open two dozen oysters
The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories |
