{"id":"01KG6GMPESSCMVAQKRRPNTWN3J","cid":"bafkreicuxgs6n2u6jpgsr3vte7yidwuhbsz47bf44uhh6roll656hn2jr4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":8545,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:03.883Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 7","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":8479,"text":"he kept himself informed of European affairs, and the last literature,\r\nforeign and domestic. And of this, when encouragement was given, he\r\nwould largely talk. But encouragement was not always given. At certain\r\nhouses, and not a few, Jimmy would drop in about ten minutes before the\r\ntea-hour, and drop out again about ten minutes after it; well knowing\r\nthat his further presence was not indispensable to the contentment or\r\nfelicity of his host.\r\n\r\nHow forlorn it was to see him so heartily drinking the generous tea, cup\r\nafter cup, and eating the flavorous bread and butter, piece after piece,\r\nwhen, owing to the lateness of the dinner hour with the rest, and the\r\nabundance of that one grand meal with them, no one besides Jimmy touched\r\nthe bread and butter, or exceeded a single cup of Souchong. And knowing\r\nall this very well, poor Jimmy would try to hide his hunger, and yet\r\ngratify it too, by striving hard to carry on a sprightly conversation\r\nwith his hostess, and throwing in the eagerest mouthfuls with a sort of\r\nabsent-minded air, as if he ate merely for custom’s sake, and not\r\nstarvation’s.\r\n\r\nPoor, poor Jimmy--God guard us all--poor Jimmy Rose!\r\n\r\nNeither did Jimmy give up his courtly ways. Whenever there were ladies\r\nat the table, sure were they of some fine word; though, indeed,\r\ntoward the close of Jimmy’s life, the young ladies rather thought\r\nhis compliments somewhat musty, smacking of cocked hats and\r\nsmall-clothes--nay, of old pawnbrokers’ shoulder-lace and sword-belts.\r\nFor there still lingered in Jimmy’s address a subdued sort of martial\r\nair; he having in his palmy days been, among other things, a general of\r\nthe State militia. There seems a fatality in these militia generalships.\r\nAlas! I can recall more than two or three gentlemen who from militia\r\ngenerals became paupers. I am afraid to think why this is so. Is it that\r\nthis military learning in a man of an unmilitary heart--that is, a\r\ngentle, peaceable heart--is an indication of some weak love of vain\r\ndisplay? But ten to one it is not so. At any rate it is unhandsome, if\r\nnot unchristian, in the happy, too much to moralise on those who are not\r\nso.\r\n\r\nSo numerous were the houses that Jimmy visited, or so cautious was he in\r\ntiming his less welcome calls, that at certain mansions he only dropped\r\nin about once a year or so. And annually upon seeing at that house the\r\nblooming Miss Frances or Miss Arabella, he would profoundly bow in his\r\nforlorn old coat, and with his soft, white hand take hers in gallant\r\nwise, saying, ‘Ah, Miss Arabella, these jewels here are bright upon\r\nthese fingers; but brighter would they look were it not for those still\r\nbrighter diamonds of your eyes!’\r\n\r\nThough in thy own need thou hadst no pence to give the poor, thou,\r\nJimmy, still hadst alms to give the rich. For not the beggar chattering\r\nat the corner pines more after bread than the vain heart after\r\ncompliment. The rich in their craving glut, as the poor in their craving\r\nwant, we have with us always. So, I suppose, thought Jimmy Rose.\r\n\r\nBut all women are not vain, or if a little grain that way inclined, more\r\nthan redeem it all with goodness. Such was the sweet girl that closed\r\npoor Jimmy’s eyes. The only daughter of an opulent alderman, she knew\r\nJimmy well, and saw to him in his declining days. During his last\r\nsickness, with her own hands she carried him jellies and blanc-mange;\r\nmade tea for him in his attic, and turned the poor old gentleman in his\r\nbed. And well hadst thou deserved it, Jimmy, at that fair creature’s\r\nhands; well merited to have thy old eyes closed by woman’s fairy\r\nfingers, who through life, in riches and in poverty, was still woman’s\r\nsworn champion and devotee.\r\n\r\nI hardly know that I should mention here one little incident connected\r\nwith this young lady’s ministrations, and poor Jimmy’s reception of\r\nthem. But it is harm to neither; I will tell it.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 7"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6GKYHXXDTPR7QVPBW00QM7","peer_type":"section","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6GMNQZ0DP99QZTHJXM2C7M","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6GMPERWYTXWY7W6FMFJZK7","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:08.121Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:55:19.503Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}