{"id":"01KG8AK8MT3GWK5WM49JF3YNY3","cid":"bafkreiecjvaraxkxljihbcmoelnioz45fd7qkitqvbtb6633ewg2siz2rm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2020,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:56.336Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 5","source_file":"01KG89J1C1N72JCD0ZBGTBX0EX","start_line":1940,"text":"me, I recall how I had more than once observed this same middle-aged\r\ngentleman, and how that toward the close of one of Jimmy's dinners\r\nhe would sit at the table pretending to be earnestly talking with\r\nbeaming Jimmy, but all the while, with a half furtive sort of tremulous\r\neagerness and hastiness, pour down glass after glass of noble wine, as\r\nif now, while Jimmy's bounteous sun was at meridian, was the time to\r\nmake his selfish hay.\r\n\r\nAt last I met a person famed for his peculiar knowledge of whatever\r\nwas secret or withdrawn in the histories and habits of noted people.\r\nWhen I inquired of this person where Jimmy could possibly be, he took\r\nme close to Trinity Church rail, out of the jostling of the crowd, and\r\nwhispered me, that Jimmy had the evening before entered an old house\r\nof his (Jimmy's), in C-- Street, which old house had been for a time\r\nuntenanted. The inference seemed to be that perhaps Jimmy might be\r\nlurking there now. So getting the precise locality, I bent my steps\r\nin that direction, and at last halted before the house containing\r\nthe room of roses. The shutters were closed, and cobwebs were spun\r\nin their crescents. The whole place had a dreary, deserted air. The\r\nsnow lay unswept, drifted in one billowed heap against the porch, no\r\nfootprint tracking it. Whoever was within, surely that lonely man was\r\nan abandoned one. Few or no people were in the street; for even at that\r\nperiod one fashion of the street had departed from it, while trade had\r\nnot as yet occupied what its rival had renounced.\r\n\r\nLooking up and down the sidewalk a moment, I softly knocked at the\r\ndoor. No response. I knocked again, and louder. No one came. I knocked\r\nand rung both; still without effect. In despair I was going to quit the\r\nspot, when, as a last resource, I gave a prolonged summons, with my\r\nutmost strength, upon the heavy knocker, and then again stood still;\r\nwhile from various strange old windows up and down the street, various\r\nstrange old heads were thrust out in wonder at so clamorous a stranger.\r\nAs if now frightened from its silence, a hollow, husky voice addressed\r\nme through the keyhole.\r\n\r\n\"Who are you?\" it said.\r\n\r\n\"A friend.\"\r\n\r\n\"Then shall you not come in,\" replied the voice, more hollowly than\r\nbefore.\r\n\r\nGreat heavens! this is not Jimmy Rose, thought I, starting. This is the\r\nwrong house. I have been misdirected. But still, to make all sure, I\r\nspoke again.\r\n\r\n\"Is James Rose within there?\"\r\n\r\nNo reply.\r\n\r\nOnce more I spoke:\r\n\r\n\"I am William Ford; let me in.\"\r\n\r\n\"Oh, I can not, I can not! I am afraid of every one.\"\r\n\r\nIt _was_ Jimmy Rose!\r\n\r\n\"Let me in, Rose; let me in, man. I am your friend.\"\r\n\r\n\"I will not. I can trust no man now.\"\r\n\r\n\"Let me in, Rose; trust at least one, in me.\"\r\n\r\n\"Quit the spot, or--\"\r\n\r\nWith that I heard a rattling against the huge lock, not made by\r\nany key, as if some small tube were being thrust into the keyhole.\r\nHorrified, I fled fast as feet could carry me.\r\n\r\nI was a young man then, and Jimmy was not more than forty. It was\r\nfive-and-twenty years ere I saw him again. And what a change. He\r\nwhom I expected to behold--if behold at all--dry, shrunken, meagre,\r\ncadaverously fierce with misery and misanthropy--amazement! the old\r\nPersian roses bloomed in his cheeks. And yet poor as any rat; poor\r\nin the last dregs of poverty; a pauper beyond almshouse pauperism; a\r\npromenading pauper in a thin, threadbare, careful coat; a pauper with\r\nwealth of polished words; a courteous, smiling, shivering gentleman.\r\n\r\nAh, poor, poor Jimmy--God guard us all--poor Jimmy Rose!\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 5"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJJJGXMPQEC5ZG4P0P42C","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1C1N72JCD0ZBGTBX0EX","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AK8MY5SA6BV2E46ZZ6BDH","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AK8MYYY176H94DGHA7CTG","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:58.618Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:06.072Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}