{"id":"01KG07B2HXZH84BY7KT6NNZ16R","cid":"bafkreiceaajhekv42bwxwly7rtfqhazapkqpnljukfrwv6sxjkzy4ethve","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3492,"extracted_at":"2026-01-27T17:17:08.782Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KFYTG9MG93RTB6YAW34V48XG","start_line":3448,"text":" 3301\tcouldn't take my eyes off it. It was about this English guy, Alec something, that was in\n 3302\tthe war and loses his memory in the hospital and all. He comes out of the hospital\n 3303\tcarrying a cane and limping all over the place, all over London, not knowing who the hell\n 3304\the is. He's really a duke, but he doesn't know it. Then he meets this nice, homey, sincere\n 3305\tgirl getting on a bus. Her goddam hat blows off and he catches it, and then they go\n 3306\tupstairs and sit down and start talking about Charles Dickens. He's both their favorite\n 3307\tauthor and all. He's carrying this copy of Oliver Twist and so's she. I could've puked.\n 3308\tAnyway, they fell in love right away, on account of they're both so nuts about Charles\n 3309\tDickens and all, and he helps her run her publishing business. She's a publisher, the girl.\n 3310\tOnly, she's not doing so hot, because her brother's a drunkard and he spends all their\n 3311\tdough. He's a very bitter guy, the brother, because he was a doctor in the war and now he\n 3312\tcan't operate any more because his nerves are shot, so he boozes all the time, but he's\n 3313\tpretty witty and all. Anyway, old Alec writes a book, and this girl publishes it, and they\n 3314\tboth make a hatful of dough on it. They're all set to get married when this other girl, old\n 3315\tMarcia, shows up. Marcia was Alec's fiancée before he lost his memory, and she\n 3316\trecognizes him when he's in this store autographing books. She tells old Alec he's really a\n 3317\tduke and all, but he doesn't believe her and doesn't want to go with her to visit his mother\n 3318\tand all. His mother's blind as a bat. But the other girl, the homey one, makes him go.\n 3319\tShe's very noble and all. So he goes. But he still doesn't get his memory back, even when\n 3320\this great Dane jumps all over him and his mother sticks her fingers all over his face and\n 3321\tbrings him this teddy bear he used to slobber around with when he was a kid. But then,\n 3322\tone day, some kids are playing cricket on the lawn and he gets smacked in the head with\n 3323\ta cricket ball. Then right away he gets his goddam memory back and he goes in and\n\n\n 3324\tkisses his mother on the forehead and all. Then he starts being a regular duke again, and\n 3325\the forgets all about the homey babe that has the publishing business. I'd tell you the rest\n 3326\tof the story, but I might puke if I did. It isn't that I'd spoil it for you or anything. There\n 3327\tisn't anything to spoil for Chrissake. Anyway, it ends up with Alec and the homey babe\n 3328\tgetting married, and the brother that's a drunkard gets his nerves back and operates on\n 3329\tAlec's mother so she can see again, and then the drunken brother and old Marcia go for\n 3330\teach other. It ends up with everybody at this long dinner table laughing their asses off\n 3331\tbecause the great Dane comes in with a bunch of puppies. Everybody thought it was a\n 3332\tmale, I suppose, or some goddam thing. All I can say is, don't see it if you don't want to\n 3333\tpuke all over yourself.\n 3334\tThe part that got me was, there was a lady sitting next to me that cried all through\n 3335\tthe goddam picture. The phonier it got, the more she cried. You'd have thought she did it\n 3336\tbecause she was kindhearted as hell, but I was sitting right next to her, and she wasn't.\n 3337\tShe had this little kid with her that was bored as hell and had to go to the bathroom, but\n 3338\tshe wouldn't take him. She kept telling him to sit still and behave himself. She was about\n 3339\tas kindhearted as a goddam wolf. You take somebody that cries their goddam eyes out\n 3340\tover phony stuff in the movies, and nine times out of ten they're mean bastards at heart.\n 3341\tI'm not kidding.\n 3342\tAfter the movie was over, I started walking down to the Wicker Bar, where I was\n 3343\tsupposed to meet old Carl Luce, and while I walked I sort of thought about war and all.","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG072RDVD8R7AN16YZF285SS","peer_label":"18","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFXT0KM64XT6K8W52TDEE0YS","peer_label":"More Classics","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"}],"ver":1,"created_at":"2026-01-27T17:17:09.346Z","ts":"2026-01-27T17:17:09.346Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}