{"id":"01KG8AM5C7VTNCBS157KWT16KE","cid":"bafkreie4va2suqyoas57gtisb32vk6maaxwb2i7y7w4krr4bi4xn3goxfy","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7110,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:26.985Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1FFTGRE9J93Z3K29NGY","start_line":7028,"text":"Circus over, we went to Taylor’s. Among crowds of others, we sat down to\r\nour stews and punches at one of the small marble tables. Hautboy sat\r\nopposite to me. Though greatly subdued from its former hilarity, his\r\nface still shone with gladness. But added to this was a quality not so\r\nprominent before; a certain serene expression of leisurely, deep good\r\nsense. Good sense and good humour in him joined hands. As the\r\nconversation proceeded between the brisk Standard and him--for I said\r\nlittle or nothing--I was more and more struck with the excellent\r\njudgment he evinced. In most of his remarks upon a variety of topics\r\nHautboy seemed intuitively to hit the exact line between enthusiasm and\r\napathy. It was plain that while Hautboy saw the world pretty much as it\r\nwas, yet he did not theoretically espouse its bright side nor its dark\r\nside. Rejecting all solutions, he but acknowledged facts. What was sad\r\nin the world he did not superficially gainsay; what was glad in it he\r\ndid not cynically slur; and all which was to him personally enjoyable,\r\nhe gratefully took to his heart. It was plain, then--so it seemed at\r\nthat moment, at least--that his extraordinary cheerfulness did not arise\r\neither from deficiency of feeling or thought.\r\n\r\nSuddenly remembering an engagement, he took up his hat, bowed\r\npleasantly, and left us.\r\n\r\n‘Well, Helmstone,’ said Standard, inaudibly drumming on the slab, ‘what\r\ndo you think of your new acquaintance?’\r\n\r\nThe two last words tingled with a peculiar and novel significance.\r\n\r\n‘New acquaintance indeed,’ echoed I. ‘Standard, I owe you a thousand\r\nthanks for introducing me to one of the most singular men I have ever\r\nseen. It needed the optical sight of such a man to believe in the\r\npossibility of his existence.’\r\n\r\n‘You rather like him, then,’ said Standard, with ironical dryness.\r\n\r\n‘I hugely love and admire him, Standard. I wish I were Hautboy.’\r\n\r\n‘Ah? That’s a pity now. There’s only one Hautboy in the world.’\r\n\r\nThis last remark set me to pondering again, and somehow it revived my\r\ndark mood.\r\n\r\n‘His wonderful cheerfulness, I suppose,’ said I, sneering with spleen,\r\n‘originates not less in a felicitous fortune than in a felicitous\r\ntemper. His great good sense is apparent; but great good sense may exist\r\nwithout sublime endowments. Nay, I take it, in certain cases, that good\r\nsense is simply owing to the absence of those. Much more, cheerfulness.\r\nUnpossessed of genius, Hautboy is eternally blessed.’\r\n\r\n‘Ah? You would not think him an extraordinary genius, then?’\r\n\r\n‘Genius? What! such a short, fat fellow a genius! Genius, like Cassius,\r\nis lank.’\r\n\r\n‘Ah? But could you not fancy that Hautboy might formerly have had\r\ngenius, but luckily getting rid of it, at last fatted up?’\r\n\r\n‘For a genius to get rid of his genius is as impossible as for a man in\r\nthe galloping consumption to get rid of that.’\r\n\r\n‘Ah? You speak very decidedly.’\r\n\r\n‘Yes, Standard,’ cried I, increasing in spleen, ‘your cheery Hautboy,\r\nafter all, is no pattern, no lesson for you and me. With average\r\nabilities; opinions clear, because circumscribed; passions docile,\r\nbecause they are feeble; a temper hilarious, because he was born to\r\nit--how can your Hautboy be made a reasonable example to a heady fellow\r\nlike you, or an ambitious dreamer like me? Nothing tempts him beyond\r\ncommon limit; in himself he has nothing to restrain. By constitution he\r\nis exempted from all moral harm. Could ambition but prick him; had he\r\nbut once heard applause, or endured contempt, a very different man would\r\nyour Hautboy be. Acquiescent and calm from the cradle to the grave, he\r\nobviously slides through the crowd.’\r\n\r\n‘Ah?’\r\n\r\n‘Why do you say _ah_ to me so strangely whenever I speak?’\r\n\r\n‘Did you ever hear of Master Betty?’\r\n\r\n‘The great English prodigy, who long ago ousted the Siddons and the\r\nKembles from Drury Lane, and made the whole town run mad with\r\nacclamation?’\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AKZPVHGWZD8V6YNCKG7NX","peer_type":"subsection","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1FFTGRE9J93Z3K29NGY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM5CP2W4GPAEPG7FG6PJ1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:28.039Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:41.889Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}