| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: greenish overcoat a number of legal papers.
"You have three years in which to pay off the whole sum," said
Gigonnet.
"But," said des Lupeaulx, frightened at such kindness, and also by so
apparently fantastic an arrangement. "What do you want of me?"
"La Billardiere's place for Baudoyer," said Gigonnet, quickly.
"That's a small matter, though it will be next to impossible for me to
do it," said des Lupeaulx. "I have just tied my hands."
"Bite the cords with your teeth," said Gigonnet.
"They are sharp," added Gobseck.
"Is that all?" asked des Lupeaulx.
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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 Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer: the whilom warehouse, which, from the exterior, was so drab
and dreary, but which within was a place of wondrous luxury.
At the moment selected by our beautiful accomplice,
Inspector Weymouth and a body of detectives entirely surrounded it;
a river police launch lay off the wharf which opened from it
on the river-side; and this upon a singularly black night,
than which a better could not have been chosen.
"You will fulfill your promise to me?" said Karamaneh,
and looked up into my face.
She was enveloped in a big, loose cloak, and from the shadow
of the hood her wonderful eyes gleamed out like stars.
The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu |
