| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Albert Savarus by Honore de Balzac: adjoining the library, and smiled at my astonishment when I saw there
a wretched chest of drawers, a shabby carpet, a camp-bed, and cotton
window-curtains. He came out of his private room, to which no one is
admitted, as Jerome informed me; the man did not go in, but merely
knocked at the door.
"The third time he was breakfasting in his library on the most frugal
fare; but on this occasion, as he had spent the night studying our
documents, as I had my attorney with me, and as that worthy Monsieur
Girardet is long-winded, I had leisure to study the stranger. He
certainly is no ordinary man. There is more than one secret behind
that face, at once so terrible and so gentle, patient and yet
Albert Savarus |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart: into the little sitting-room. I could hear Thomas going up the
stairs, could hear him rouse Warner, and the steps of the
chauffeur as he hurriedly dressed. But my attention was busy
with the room below.
On the center-table, open, was a sealskin traveling bag. It was
filled with gold-topped bottles and brushes, and it breathed
opulence, luxury, femininity from every inch of surface. How did
it get there? I was still asking myself the question when Warner
came running down the stairs and into the room. He was
completely but somewhat incongruously dressed, and his open,
boyish face looked abashed. He was a country boy, absolutely
The Circular Staircase |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Village Rector by Honore de Balzac: II
VERONIQUE
There are, no doubt, many young girls in the world as pure as
Veronique, but none purer or more modest. Her confessions might have
surprised the angels and rejoiced the Blessed Virgin.
At sixteen years of age she was fully developed, and appeared the
woman she was eventually to become. She was of medium height, neither
her father nor her mother being tall; but her figure was charming in
its graceful suppleness, and in the serpentine curves laboriously
sought by painters and sculptors,--curves which Nature herself draws
so delicately with her lissom outlines, revealed to the eye of artists
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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 The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James: doctor didn't share them. What I took the liberty of more closely
inferring was that the girl might in some way have estranged him.
Well, if he had taken the turn of jealousy for instance it could
scarcely be jealousy of me. In that case - over and above the
absurdity of it - he wouldn't have gone away just to leave us
together. For some time before his going we had indulged in no
allusion to the buried treasure, and from his silence, which my
reserve simply emulated, I had drawn a sharp conclusion. His
courage had dropped, his ardour had gone the way of mine - this
appearance at least he left me to scan. More than that he couldn't
do; he couldn't face the triumph with which I might have greeted an
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