| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Death of the Lion by Henry James: come alone or not come at all."
She was interesting; I could imagine she had lost parents, natural
protectors - could conceive even she had inherited money. I was at
a pass of my own fortunes when keeping hansoms at doors seemed to
me pure swagger. As a trick of this bold and sensitive girl,
however, it became romantic - a part of the general romance of her
freedom, her errand, her innocence. The confidence of young
Americans was notorious, and I speedily arrived at a conviction
that no impulse could have been more generous than the impulse that
had operated here. I foresaw at that moment that it would make her
my peculiar charge, just as circumstances had made Neil Paraday.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: is writing a book! I suppose that is why she never cares to mingle with
us, and has so little time for her husband and the child."
"Well, YOU ask her," said I. "I have never spoken to the lady."
Elsa blushed faintly. "I have only spoken to her once," she confessed. "I
took her a bunch of wild flowers, to her room, and she came to the door in
a white gown, with her hair loose. Never shall I forget that moment. She
just took the flowers, and I heard her--because the door was not quite
properly shut--I heard her, as I walked down the passage, saying 'Purity,
fragrance, the fragrance of purity and the purity of fragrance!' It was
wonderful!"
At that moment Frau Kellermann knocked at the door.
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