{"id":"01KG8AKBBC9MGQ8CJAMERH765N","cid":"bafkreigrbgbn3sztxix7wcbhvwmg46rcixwxmfhyoxi3sfrvbpxnrqbkmi","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":9664,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:57.726Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","start_line":9601,"text":"CHAPTER XLI.\r\n\r\nENDING WITH A RUPTURE OF THE HYPOTHESIS.\r\n\r\n\r\n\"With what heart,\" cried Frank, still in character, \"have you told me\r\nthis story? A story I can no way approve; for its moral, if accepted,\r\nwould drain me of all reliance upon my last stay, and, therefore, of my\r\nlast courage in life. For, what was that bright view of China Aster but\r\na cheerful trust that, if he but kept up a brave heart, worked hard, and\r\never hoped for the best, all at last would go well? If your purpose,\r\nCharlie, in telling me this story, was to pain me, and keenly, you have\r\nsucceeded; but, if it was to destroy my last confidence, I praise God\r\nyou have not.\"\r\n\r\n\"Confidence?\" cried Charlie, who, on his side, seemed with his whole\r\nheart to enter into the spirit of the thing, \"what has confidence to do\r\nwith the matter? That moral of the story, which I am for commending to\r\nyou, is this: the folly, on both sides, of a friend's helping a friend.\r\nFor was not that loan of Orchis to China Aster the first step towards\r\ntheir estrangement? And did it not bring about what in effect was the\r\nenmity of Orchis? I tell you, Frank, true friendship, like other\r\nprecious things, is not rashly to be meddled with. And what more\r\nmeddlesome between friends than a loan? A regular marplot. For how can\r\nyou help that the helper must turn out a creditor? And creditor and\r\nfriend, can they ever be one? no, not in the most lenient case; since,\r\nout of lenity to forego one's claim, is less to be a friendly creditor\r\nthan to cease to be a creditor at all. But it will not do to rely upon\r\nthis lenity, no, not in the best man; for the best man, as the worst, is\r\nsubject to all mortal contingencies. He may travel, he may marry, he may\r\njoin the Come-Outers, or some equally untoward school or sect, not to\r\nspeak of other things that more or less tend to new-cast the character.\r\nAnd were there nothing else, who shall answer for his digestion, upon\r\nwhich so much depends?\"\r\n\r\n\"But Charlie, dear Charlie----\"\r\n\r\n\"Nay, wait.--You have hearkened to my story in vain, if you do not see\r\nthat, however indulgent and right-minded I may seem to you now, that is\r\nno guarantee for the future. And into the power of that uncertain\r\npersonality which, through the mutability of my humanity, I may\r\nhereafter become, should not common sense dissuade you, my dear Frank,\r\nfrom putting yourself? Consider. Would you, in your present need, be\r\nwilling to accept a loan from a friend, securing him by a mortgage on\r\nyour homestead, and do so, knowing that you had no reason to feel\r\nsatisfied that the mortgage might not eventually be transferred into the\r\nhands of a foe? Yet the difference between this man and that man is not\r\nso great as the difference between what the same man be to-day and what\r\nhe may be in days to come. For there is no bent of heart or turn of\r\nthought which any man holds by virtue of an unalterable nature or will.\r\nEven those feelings and opinions deemed most identical with eternal\r\nright and truth, it is not impossible but that, as personal persuasions,\r\nthey may in reality be but the result of some chance tip of Fate's elbow\r\nin throwing her dice. For, not to go into the first seeds of things, and\r\npassing by the accident of parentage predisposing to this or that habit\r\nof mind, descend below these, and tell me, if you change this man's\r\nexperiences or that man's books, will wisdom go surety for his unchanged\r\nconvictions? As particular food begets particular dreams, so particular\r\nexperiences or books particular feelings or beliefs. I will hear nothing\r\nof that fine babble about development and its laws; there is no\r\ndevelopment in opinion and feeling but the developments of time and\r\ntide. You may deem all this talk idle, Frank; but conscience bids me\r\nshow you how fundamental the reasons for treating you as I do.\"\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJNPW2ZJ603XV8VPNVD5T","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKBB5JD9THKCG3NVN28HY","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:01.388Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.868Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}