{"id":"01KG8AN0CCMY2F7XYKKC0QS4GP","cid":"bafkreiechiu26haf56r44y6rayivamvg3jhwfg7htn7jc3cw5paia3ylum","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2770,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:52.918Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 12","source_file":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","start_line":2699,"text":"After a little further waiting for him, Mrs. Glendinning heard Pierre's\r\nvoice--\"Yes, before eight o'clock at least, Lucy--no fear;\" and then the\r\nhall door banged, and Pierre returned to her.\r\n\r\nBut now she found that this unforeseen visit of Lucy had completely\r\nrouted all business capacity in her mercurial son; fairly capsizing him\r\nagain into, there was no telling what sea of pleasant pensiveness.\r\n\r\n\"Dear me! some other time, sister Mary.\"\r\n\r\n\"Not this time; that is very certain, Pierre. Upon my word I shall have\r\nto get Lucy kidnapped, and temporarily taken out of the country, and you\r\nhandcuffed to the table, else there will be no having a preliminary\r\nunderstanding with you, previous to calling in the lawyers. Well, I\r\nshall yet manage you, one way or other. Good-bye, Pierre; I see you\r\ndon't want me now. I suppose I shan't see you till to-morrow morning.\r\nLuckily, I have a very interesting book to read. Adieu!\"\r\n\r\nBut Pierre remained in his chair; his gaze fixed upon the stilly sunset\r\nbeyond the meadows, and far away to the now golden hills. A glorious,\r\nsoftly glorious, and most gracious evening, which seemed plainly a\r\ntongue to all humanity, saying: I go down in beauty to rise in joy; Love\r\nreigns throughout all worlds that sunsets visit; it is a foolish ghost\r\nstory; there is no such thing as misery. Would Love, which is\r\nomnipotent, have misery in his domain? Would the god of sunlight decree\r\ngloom? It is a flawless, speckless, fleckless, beautiful world\r\nthroughout; joy now, and joy forever!\r\n\r\nThen the face, which before had seemed mournfully and reproachfully\r\nlooking out upon him from the effulgent sunset's heart; the face slid\r\nfrom him; and left alone there with his soul's joy, thinking that that\r\nvery night he would utter the magic word of marriage to his Lucy; not a\r\nhappier youth than Pierre Glendinning sat watching that day's sun go\r\ndown.\r\n\r\n\r\nIV.\r\n\r\nAfter this morning of gayety, this noon of tragedy, and this evening so\r\nfull of chequered pensiveness; Pierre now possessed his soul in joyful\r\nmildness and steadfastness; feeling none of that wild anguish of\r\nanticipative rapture, which, in weaker minds, too often dislodges Love's\r\nsweet bird from her nest.\r\n\r\nThe early night was warm, but dark--for the moon was not risen yet--and\r\nas Pierre passed on beneath the pendulous canopies of the long arms of\r\nthe weeping elms of the village, an almost impenetrable blackness\r\nsurrounded him, but entered not the gently illuminated halls of his\r\nheart. He had not gone very far, when in the distance beyond, he noticed\r\na light moving along the opposite side of the road, and slowly\r\napproaching. As it was the custom for some of the more elderly, and\r\nperhaps timid inhabitants of the village, to carry a lantern when going\r\nabroad of so dark a night, this object conveyed no impression of novelty\r\nto Pierre; still, as it silently drew nearer and nearer, the one only\r\ndistinguishable thing before him, he somehow felt a nameless\r\npresentiment that the light must be seeking him. He had nearly gained\r\nthe cottage door, when the lantern crossed over toward him; and as his\r\nnimble hand was laid at last upon the little wicket-gate, which he\r\nthought was now to admit him to so much delight; a heavy hand was laid\r\nupon himself, and at the same moment, the lantern was lifted toward his\r\nface, by a hooded and obscure-looking figure, whose half-averted\r\ncountenance he could but indistinctly discern. But Pierre's own open\r\naspect, seemed to have been quickly scrutinized by the other.\r\n\r\n\"I have a letter for Pierre Glendinning,\" said the stranger, \"and I\r\nbelieve this is he.\" At the same moment, a letter was drawn forth, and\r\nsought his hand.\r\n\r\n\"For me!\" exclaimed Pierre, faintly, starting at the strangeness of the\r\nencounter;--\"methinks this is an odd time and place to deliver your\r\nmail;--who are you?--Stay!\"\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 12"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJS0JNVAGJYMWXV1594N5","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AN0BY3ZJFBC4992TKACDZ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AN1JR6M10K9GX2CPXRWEZ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:55.692Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:09.527Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}