{"id":"01KG8AK9AC18VJSPEG6VMFW2PB","cid":"bafkreicsyqhmvhux7g3ympizfuecsgmcarrqchrnirhx5pbymdqiacsgiu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1764,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:57.722Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","start_line":1702,"text":"CHAPTER VII.\r\n\r\nA GENTLEMAN WITH GOLD SLEEVE-BUTTONS.\r\n\r\n\r\nAt an interesting point of the narration, and at the moment when, with\r\nmuch curiosity, indeed, urgency, the narrator was being particularly\r\nquestioned upon that point, he was, as it happened, altogether diverted\r\nboth from it and his story, by just then catching sight of a gentleman\r\nwho had been standing in sight from the beginning, but, until now, as it\r\nseemed, without being observed by him.\r\n\r\n\"Pardon me,\" said he, rising, \"but yonder is one who I know will\r\ncontribute, and largely. Don't take it amiss if I quit you.\"\r\n\r\n\"Go: duty before all things,\" was the conscientious reply.\r\n\r\nThe stranger was a man of more than winsome aspect. There he stood apart\r\nand in repose, and yet, by his mere look, lured the man in gray from his\r\nstory, much as, by its graciousness of bearing, some full-leaved elm,\r\nalone in a meadow, lures the noon sickleman to throw down his sheaves,\r\nand come and apply for the alms of its shade.\r\n\r\nBut, considering that goodness is no such rare thing among men--the\r\nworld familiarly know the noun; a common one in every language--it was\r\ncurious that what so signalized the stranger, and made him look like a\r\nkind of foreigner, among the crowd (as to some it make him appear more\r\nor less unreal in this portraiture), was but the expression of so\r\nprevalent a quality. Such goodness seemed his, allied with such fortune,\r\nthat, so far as his own personal experience could have gone, scarcely\r\ncould he have known ill, physical or moral; and as for knowing or\r\nsuspecting the latter in any serious degree (supposing such degree of it\r\nto be), by observation or philosophy; for that, probably, his nature, by\r\nits opposition, imperfectly qualified, or from it wholly exempted. For\r\nthe rest, he might have been five and fifty, perhaps sixty, but tall,\r\nrosy, between plump and portly, with a primy, palmy air, and for the\r\ntime and place, not to hint of his years, dressed with a strangely\r\nfestive finish and elegance. The inner-side of his coat-skirts was of\r\nwhite satin, which might have looked especially inappropriate, had it\r\nnot seemed less a bit of mere tailoring than something of an emblem, as\r\nit were; an involuntary emblem, let us say, that what seemed so good\r\nabout him was not all outside; no, the fine covering had a still finer\r\nlining. Upon one hand he wore a white kid glove, but the other hand,\r\nwhich was ungloved, looked hardly less white. Now, as the Fidèle, like\r\nmost steamboats, was upon deck a little soot-streaked here and there,\r\nespecially about the railings, it was marvel how, under such\r\ncircumstances, these hands retained their spotlessness. But, if you\r\nwatched them a while, you noticed that they avoided touching anything;\r\nyou noticed, in short, that a certain negro body-servant, whose hands\r\nnature had dyed black, perhaps with the same purpose that millers wear\r\nwhite, this negro servant's hands did most of his master's handling for\r\nhim; having to do with dirt on his account, but not to his prejudices.\r\nBut if, with the same undefiledness of consequences to himself, a\r\ngentleman could also sin by deputy, how shocking would that be! But it\r\nis not permitted to be; and even if it were, no judicious moralist would\r\nmake proclamation of it.\r\n\r\nThis gentleman, therefore, there is reason to affirm, was one who, like\r\nthe Hebrew governor, knew how to keep his hands clean, and who never in\r\nhis life happened to be run suddenly against by hurrying house-painter,\r\nor sweep; in a word, one whose very good luck it was to be a very good\r\nman.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJJRSD8D6KH52EB3K3B42","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AK9A33F0080P9QNSC6MTX","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:59.308Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:06.952Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}