{"id":"01KG8AMZPKE3DKKFXDATHCPXZK","cid":"bafkreicbtobakf5uewaqqojyk7hoaj54tq6uqyvq5hscvzwqy3ufobdcxa","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7776,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:52.921Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","start_line":7729,"text":"unattractive woman in her circumstances, would not have been altogether\r\nalluring to Pierre. No. That intense and indescribable longing, which\r\nher letter by its very incoherencies had best embodied, proceeded from\r\nno base, vain, or ordinary motive whatever; but was the unsuppressible\r\nand unmistakable cry of the godhead through her soul, commanding Pierre\r\nto fly to her, and do his highest and most glorious duty in the world.\r\n\r\nNor now, as it changedly seemed to Pierre, did that duty consist in\r\nstubbornly flying in the marble face of the Past, and striving to\r\nreverse the decree which had pronounced that Isabel could never\r\nperfectly inherit all the privileges of a legitimate child of her\r\nfather. And thoroughly now he felt, that even as this would in the\r\npresent case be both preposterous in itself and cruel in effect to both\r\nthe living and the dead, so was it entirely undesired by Isabel, who\r\nthough once yielding to a momentary burst of aggressive enthusiasm, yet\r\nin her more wonted mood of mournfulness and sweetness, evinced no such\r\nlawless wandering. Thoroughly, now he felt, that Isabel was content to\r\nlive obscure in her paternal identity, so long as she could any way\r\nappease her deep longings for the constant love and sympathy and close\r\ndomestic contact of some one of her blood. So that Pierre had no\r\nslightest misgiving that upon learning the character of his scheme, she\r\nwould deem it to come short of her natural expectations; while so far as\r\nits apparent strangeness was concerned,--a strangeness, perhaps\r\ninvincible to squeamish and humdrum women--here Pierre anticipated no\r\nobstacle in Isabel; for her whole past was strange, and strangeness\r\nseemed best befitting to her future.\r\n\r\nBut had Pierre now reread the opening paragraph of her letter to him, he\r\nmight have very quickly derived a powerful anticipative objection from\r\nhis sister, which his own complete disinterestedness concealed from him.\r\nThough Pierre had every reason to believe that--owing to her secluded\r\nand humble life--Isabel was in entire ignorance of the fact of his\r\nprecise relation to Lucy Tartan:--an ignorance, whose first indirect and\r\nunconscious manifestation in Isabel, had been unspeakably welcome to\r\nhim;--and though, of course, he had both wisely and benevolently\r\nabstained from enlightening her on that point; still, notwithstanding\r\nthis, was it possible that any true-hearted noble girl like Isabel,\r\nwould, to benefit herself, willingly become a participator in an act,\r\nwhich would prospectively and forever bar the blessed boon of\r\nmarriageable love from one so young and generous as Pierre, and\r\neternally entangle him in a fictitious alliance, which, though in\r\nreality but a web of air, yet in effect would prove a wall of iron; for\r\nthe same powerful motive which induced the thought of forming such an\r\nalliance, would always thereafter forbid that tacit exposure of its\r\nfictitiousness, which would be consequent upon its public\r\ndiscontinuance, and the real nuptials of Pierre with any other being\r\nduring the lifetime of Isabel.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AKSZDB4GJMSXZ85ZAME9A","peer_type":"subsection","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMZPKP2XREXGYA6MEJ8Q7","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AN0BK7FWXTHB3W1TDKZBW","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:54.995Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:22.222Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}