| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart: companies when we can--so I called up the club, and about eight
o'clock Thomas Johnson came to see me. Poor Thomas!
Well, it ended by my engaging Thomas on the spot, at outrageous
wages, and with permission to sleep in the gardener's lodge,
empty since the house was rented. The old man--he was white-
haired and a little stooped, but with an immense idea of his
personal dignity--gave me his reasons hesitatingly.
"I ain't sayin' nothin', Mis' Innes," he said, with his hand on
the door-knob, "but there's been goin's-on here this las' few
months as ain't natchal. 'Tain't one thing an' 'tain't another--
it's jest a door squealin' here, an' a winder closin' there, but
The Circular Staircase |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Lost Princess of Oz by L. Frank Baum: experimenting with it in various ways ever since she had started on
this eventful journey. At different times she had stolen away from
the others of her party and in solitude had tried to find out what the
Magic Belt could do and what it could not do. There were a lot of
things it could not do, she discovered, but she learned some things
about the Belt which even her girl friends did not suspect she knew.
For one thing, she had remembered that when the Nome King owned it,
the Magic Belt used to perform transformations, and by thinking hard
she had finally recalled the way in which such transformations had
been accomplished. Better than this, however, was the discovery that
the Magic Belt would grant its wearer one wish a day. All she need do
The Lost Princess of Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Bride of Lammermoor by Walter Scott: injurious than even the studied insults of her elder brother.
Her grief, however, had no shade of resentment; she folded her
arms about the boy's neck, and saying faintly, "Poor Henry! you
speak but what they tell you" she burst into a flood of
unrestrained tears. The boy was moved, notwithstanding the
thoughtlessness of his age and character. "The devil take me,"
said he, "Lucy, if I fetch you any more of these tormenting
messages again; for I like you better," said he, kissing away the
tears, "than the whole pack of them; and you shall have my grey
pony to ride on, and you shall canter him if you like--ay, and
ride beyond the village, too, if you have a mind."
The Bride of Lammermoor |
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 Albert Savarus by Honore de Balzac: Besancon four or five times in the course of the winter, and busying
herself with improving her land, was regarded as a very eccentric
personage. She was one of the celebrities of the Eastern provinces.
Madame de Soulas has two children, a boy and a girl, and she has grown
younger; but Monsieur de Soulas has aged a good deal.
"My fortune has cost me dear," said he to young Chavoncourt. "Really
to know a bigot it is unfortunately necessary to marry her!"
Mademoiselle de Watteville behaves in the most extraordinary manner.
"She has vagaries," people say. Every year she goes to gaze at the
walls of the Grande Chartreuse. Perhaps she dreams of imitating her
grand-uncle by forcing the walls of the monastery to find a husband,
Albert Savarus |
