{"id":"01KG8AN1KZ15865V51Q9QYQXR5","cid":"bafkreifsqokdnpsqsqioeeiuuhpuxpwnkc743xjudga4spvmsmwnqetkki","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":15168,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:52.924Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","start_line":15110,"text":"lashed bulwarks; and the slates fell hurtling like displaced ship's\r\nblocks from aloft. Stemming such tempests through the deserted streets,\r\nPierre felt a dark, triumphant joy; that while others had crawled in\r\nfear to their kennels, he alone defied the storm-admiral, whose most\r\nvindictive peltings of hail-stones,--striking his iron-framed fiery\r\nfurnace of a body,--melted into soft dew, and so, harmlessly trickled\r\nfrom off him.\r\n\r\nBy-and-by, of such howling, pelting nights, he began to bend his steps\r\ndown the dark, narrow side-streets, in quest of the more secluded and\r\nmysterious tap-rooms. There he would feel a singular satisfaction, in\r\nsitting down all dripping in a chair, ordering his half-pint of ale\r\nbefore him, and drawing over his cap to protect his eyes from the light,\r\neye the varied faces of the social castaways, who here had their haunts\r\nfrom the bitterest midnights.\r\n\r\nBut at last he began to feel a distaste for even these; and now nothing\r\nbut the utter night-desolation of the obscurest warehousing lanes would\r\ncontent him, or be at all sufferable to him. Among these he had now been\r\naccustomed to wind in and out every evening; till one night as he paused\r\na moment previous to turning about for home, a sudden, unwonted, and\r\nall-pervading sensation seized him. He knew not where he was; he did not\r\nhave any ordinary life-feeling at all. He could not see; though\r\ninstinctively putting his hand to his eyes, he seemed to feel that the\r\nlids were open. Then he was sensible of a combined blindness, and\r\nvertigo, and staggering; before his eyes a million green meteors danced;\r\nhe felt his foot tottering upon the curb, he put out his hands, and knew\r\nno more for the time. When he came to himself he found that he was lying\r\ncrosswise in the gutter, dabbled with mud and slime. He raised himself\r\nto try if he could stand; but the fit was entirely gone. Immediately he\r\nquickened his steps homeward, forbearing to rest or pause at all on the\r\nway, lest that rush of blood to his head, consequent upon his sudden\r\ncessation from walking, should again smite him down. This circumstance\r\nwarned him away from those desolate streets, lest the repetition of the\r\nfit should leave him there to perish by night in unknown and unsuspected\r\nloneliness. But if that terrible vertigo had been also intended for\r\nanother and deeper warning, he regarded such added warning not at all;\r\nbut again plied heart and brain as before.\r\n\r\nBut now at last since the very blood in his body had in vain rebelled\r\nagainst his Titanic soul; now the only visible outward symbols of that\r\nsoul--his eyes--did also turn downright traitors to him, and with more\r\nsuccess than the rebellious blood. He had abused them so recklessly,\r\nthat now they absolutely refused to look on paper. He turned them on\r\npaper, and they blinked and shut. The pupils of his eyes rolled away\r\nfrom him in their own orbits. He put his hand up to them, and sat back\r\nin his seat. Then, without saying one word, he continued there for his\r\nusual term, suspended, motionless, blank.\r\n\r\nBut next morning--it was some few days after the arrival of Lucy--still\r\nfeeling that a certain downright infatuation, and no less, is both\r\nunavoidable and indispensable in the composition of any great, deep\r\nbook, or even any wholly unsuccessful attempt at any great, deep book;\r\nnext morning he returned to the charge. But again the pupils of his eyes\r\nrolled away from him in their orbits: and now a general and nameless\r\ntorpor--some horrible foretaste of death itself--seemed stealing upon\r\nhim.\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AKHN66NK0QXXEMH96PQP9","peer_type":"section","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AN1KZQW1QYMHY0G0GRK8G","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:56.959Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:34.377Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}