{"id":"01KG6YHA8H4ETY7PGBKS969PH5","cid":"bafkreigh5vyb2lf4jj2mqyr5etrwc5u6ybcw5snd3ojm4jznvbt4ss3tl4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1949,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:55.409Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 10","source_file":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","start_line":1860,"text":"“I certainly cannot inform you. I know nothing about him. Formerly I\r\nemployed him as a copyist; but he has done nothing for me now for some\r\ntime past.”\r\n\r\n“I shall settle him, then—good morning, sir.”\r\n\r\nSeveral days passed, and I heard nothing more; and, though I often felt\r\na charitable prompting to call at the place and see poor Bartleby, yet\r\na certain squeamishness, of I know not what, withheld me.\r\n\r\nAll is over with him, by this time, thought I, at last, when, through\r\nanother week, no further intelligence reached me. But, coming to my\r\nroom the day after, I found several persons waiting at my door in a\r\nhigh state of nervous excitement.\r\n\r\n“That’s the man—here he comes,” cried the foremost one, whom I\r\nrecognized as the lawyer who had previously called upon me alone.\r\n\r\n“You must take him away, sir, at once,” cried a portly person among\r\nthem, advancing upon me, and whom I knew to be the landlord of No. ——\r\nWall street. “These gentlemen, my tenants, cannot stand it any longer;\r\nMr. B——,” pointing to the lawyer, “has turned him out of his room, and\r\nhe now persists in haunting the building generally, sitting upon the\r\nbanisters of the stairs by day, and sleeping in the entry by night.\r\nEverybody is concerned; clients are leaving the offices; some fears are\r\nentertained of a mob; something you must do, and that without delay.”\r\n\r\nAghast at this torrent, I fell back before it, and would fain have\r\nlocked myself in my new quarters. In vain I persisted that Bartleby was\r\nnothing to me—no more than to any one else. In vain—I was the last\r\nperson known to have anything to do with him, and they held me to the\r\nterrible account. Fearful, then, of being exposed in the papers (as one\r\nperson present obscurely threatened), I considered the matter, and, at\r\nlength, said, that if the lawyer would give me a confidential interview\r\nwith the scrivener, in his (the lawyer’s) own room, I would, that\r\nafternoon, strive my best to rid them of the nuisance they complained\r\nof.\r\n\r\nGoing up stairs to my old haunt, there was Bartleby silently sitting\r\nupon the banister at the landing.\r\n\r\n“What are you doing here, Bartleby?” said I.\r\n\r\n“Sitting upon the banister,” he mildly replied.\r\n\r\nI motioned him into the lawyer’s room, who then left us.\r\n\r\n“Bartleby” said I, “are you aware that you are the cause of great\r\ntribulation to me, by persisting in occupying the entry after being\r\ndismissed from the office?”\r\n\r\nNo answer.\r\n\r\n“Now one of two things must take place. Either you must do something,\r\nor something must be done to you. Now what sort of business would you\r\nlike to engage in? Would you like to re-engage in copying for some\r\none?”\r\n\r\n“No; I would prefer not to make any change.”\r\n\r\n“Would you like a clerkship in a dry-goods store?”\r\n\r\n“There is too much confinement about that. No, I would not like a\r\nclerkship; but I am not particular.”\r\n\r\n“Too much confinement,” I cried, “why you keep yourself confined all\r\nthe time!”\r\n\r\n“I would prefer not to take a clerkship,” he rejoined, as if to settle\r\nthat little item at once.\r\n\r\n“How would a bar-tender’s business suit you? There is no trying of the\r\neye-sight in that.”\r\n\r\n“I would not like it at all; though, as I said before, I am not\r\nparticular.”\r\n\r\nHis unwonted wordiness inspirited me. I returned to the charge.\r\n\r\n“Well, then, would you like to travel through the country collecting\r\nbills for the merchants? That would improve your health.”\r\n\r\n“No, I would prefer to be doing something else.”\r\n\r\n“How, then, would going as a companion to Europe, to entertain some\r\nyoung gentleman with your conversation—how would that suit you?”\r\n\r\n“Not at all. It does not strike me that there is anything definite\r\nabout that. I like to be stationary. But I am not particular.”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 10"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGB7ZZ4F251SWKNDDK547","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YHA8EMGGQHA1V5MCC7P18","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6YHA8H456AVVTC5903SMX9","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:57.393Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:58:03.338Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}