| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf: too late in thumping her tumbler on the table to prevent Rachel
from hearing, and from blushing scarlet with embarrassment.
"The way servants treat flowers!" she said hastily. She drew
a green vase with a crinkled lip towards her, and began pulling out
the tight little chrysanthemums, which she laid on the table-cloth,
arranging them fastidiously side by side.
There was a pause.
"You knew Jenkinson, didn't you, Ambrose?" asked Mr. Pepper across
the table.
"Jenkinson of Peterhouse?"
"He's dead," said Mr. Pepper.
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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 Lesser Bourgeoisie by Honore de Balzac: some hideous or prohibitory defect."
"Well, I'll admit," said Cerizet, "that there is a slight objection,
not on the score of family, for, to tell the truth, the young woman
has none--"
"Ah!" said la Peyrade, "a natural child--Well, what next?"
"Next, she is not so very young,--something like twenty-nine or so;
but there's nothing easier than to turn an elderly girl into a young
widow if you have imagination."
"Is that all the venom in it?"
"Yes, all that is irreparable."
"What do you mean by that? Is it a case of rhinoplasty?"
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