{"id":"01KG8AN0E3ME6EN5NWWT0Q1FGD","cid":"bafkreibb3bgo7ifq3b76jnpu75npkuzyr4uyxkp4bj63qy6tiupuhvap2m","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":13611,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:52.924Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","start_line":13546,"text":"I.\r\n\r\nIf a frontier man be seized by wild Indians, and carried far and deep\r\ninto the wilderness, and there held a captive, with no slightest\r\nprobability of eventual deliverance; then the wisest thing for that man\r\nis to exclude from his memory by every possible method, the least images\r\nof those beloved objects now forever reft from him. For the more\r\ndelicious they were to him in the now departed possession, so much the\r\nmore agonizing shall they be in the present recalling. And though a\r\nstrong man may sometimes succeed in strangling such tormenting memories;\r\nyet, if in the beginning permitted to encroach upon him unchecked, the\r\nsame man shall, in the end, become as an idiot. With a continent and an\r\nocean between him and his wife--thus sundered from her, by whatever\r\nimperative cause, for a term of long years;--the husband, if\r\npassionately devoted to her, and by nature broodingly sensitive of soul,\r\nis wise to forget her till he embrace her again;--is wise never to\r\nremember her if he hear of her death. And though such complete suicidal\r\nforgettings prove practically impossible, yet is it the shallow and\r\nostentatious affections alone which are bustling in the offices of\r\nobituarian memories. _The love deep as death_--what mean those five\r\nwords, but that such love can not live, and be continually remembering\r\nthat the loved one is no more? If it be thus then in cases where entire\r\nunremorsefulness as regards the beloved absent objects is presumed, how\r\nmuch more intolerable, when the knowledge of their hopeless wretchedness\r\noccurs, attended by the visitations of before latent upbraidings in the\r\nrememberer as having been any way--even unwillingly--the producers of\r\ntheir sufferings. There seems no other sane recourse for some moody\r\norganizations on whom such things, under such circumstances intrude, but\r\nright and left to flee them, whatever betide.\r\n\r\nIf little or nothing hitherto has been said of Lucy Tartan in reference\r\nto the condition of Pierre after his departure from the Meadows, it has\r\nonly been because her image did not willingly occupy his soul. He had\r\nstriven his utmost to banish it thence; and only once--on receiving the\r\ntidings of Glen's renewed attentions--did he remit the intensity of\r\nthose strivings, or rather feel them, as impotent in him in that hour of\r\nhis manifold and overwhelming prostration.\r\n\r\nNot that the pale form of Lucy, swooning on her snow-white bed; not that\r\nthe inexpressible anguish of the shriek--\"My heart! my heart!\" would not\r\nnow at times force themselves upon him, and cause his whole being to\r\nthrill with a nameless horror and terror. But the very thrillingness of\r\nthe phantom made him to shun it, with all remaining might of his spirit.\r\n\r\nNor were there wanting still other, and far more wonderful, though but\r\ndimly conscious influences in the breast of Pierre, to meet as\r\nrepellants the imploring form. Not to speak of his being devoured by the\r\nall-exacting theme of his book, there were sinister preoccupations in\r\nhim of a still subtler and more fearful sort, of which some inklings\r\nhave already been given.\r\n\r\nIt was while seated solitary in his room one morning; his flagging\r\nfaculties seeking a momentary respite; his head sideways turned toward\r\nthe naked floor, following the seams in it, which, as wires, led\r\nstraight from where he sat to the connecting door, and disappeared\r\nbeneath it into the chamber of Isabel; that he started at a tap at that\r\nvery door, followed by the wonted, low, sweet voice,--\r\n\r\n\"Pierre! a letter for thee--dost thou hear? a letter,--may I come in?\"\r\n\r\nAt once he felt a dart of surprise and apprehension; for he was\r\nprecisely in that general condition with respect to the outer world,\r\nthat he could not reasonably look for any tidings but disastrous, or at\r\nleast, unwelcome ones. He assented; and Isabel entered, holding out the\r\nbillet in her hand.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AKWW7G0SNDQKREFDHV3QT","peer_type":"section","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AN0EC2DD298MF868NVCGE","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:55.747Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:31.829Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}