{"id":"01KG8AMZ4DZSENPKBMKFZ0S1GM","cid":"bafkreia2q25quif3hcxbmigt5bifz7xkejklmhqu2clkvaiw456sjn27cu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":12666,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:52.924Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","start_line":12620,"text":"II.\r\n\r\nHe had been engaged some weeks upon his book--in pursuance of his\r\nsettled plan avoiding all contact with any of his city-connections or\r\nfriends, even as in his social downfall they sedulously avoided seeking\r\nhim out--nor ever once going or sending to the post-office, though it\r\nwas but a little round the corner from where he was, since having\r\ndispatched no letters himself, he expected none; thus isolated from the\r\nworld, and intent upon his literary enterprise, Pierre had passed some\r\nweeks, when verbal tidings came to him, of three most momentous events.\r\n\r\nFirst: his mother was dead.\r\n\r\nSecond: all Saddle Meadows was become Glen Stanly's.\r\n\r\nThird: Glen Stanly was believed to be the suitor of Lucy; who,\r\nconvalescent from an almost mortal illness, was now dwelling at her\r\nmother's house in town.\r\n\r\nIt was chiefly the first-mentioned of these events which darted a sharp\r\nnatural anguish into Pierre. No letter had come to him; no smallest ring\r\nor memorial been sent him; no slightest mention made of him in the will;\r\nand yet it was reported that an inconsolable grief had induced his\r\nmother's mortal malady, and driven her at length into insanity, which\r\nsuddenly terminated in death; and when he first heard of that event,\r\nshe had been cold in the ground for twenty-five days.\r\n\r\nHow plainly did all this speak of the equally immense pride and grief of\r\nhis once magnificent mother; and how agonizedly now did it hint of her\r\nmortally-wounded love for her only and best-beloved Pierre! In vain he\r\nreasoned with himself; in vain remonstrated with himself; in vain sought\r\nto parade all his stoic arguments to drive off the onslaught of natural\r\npassion. Nature prevailed; and with tears that like acid burned and\r\nscorched as they flowed, he wept, he raved, at the bitter loss of his\r\nparent; whose eyes had been closed by unrelated hands that were hired;\r\nbut whose heart had been broken, and whose very reason been ruined, by\r\nthe related hands of her son.\r\n\r\nFor some interval it almost seemed as if his own heart would snap; his\r\nown reason go down. Unendurable grief of a man, when Death itself gives\r\nthe stab, and then snatches all availments to solacement away. For in\r\nthe grave is no help, no prayer thither may go, no forgiveness thence\r\ncome; so that the penitent whose sad victim lies in the ground, for that\r\nuseless penitent his doom is eternal, and though it be Christmas-day\r\nwith all Christendom, with him it is Hell-day and an eaten liver\r\nforever.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AKVZFJ847Y2SPBRMF7PA4","peer_type":"section","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMZVGQM20Q4SW9NX11JD6","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:54.413Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:30.311Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}