{"id":"01KG8AN24Z0NQN99QK1T4WJE2N","cid":"bafkreie5a2cj24nfag6bciz3szsmg3gnvayplhlsdf6tekn3sy7fv3idgu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3518,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:52.918Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","start_line":3454,"text":"very busy painting. He said to your father--'Glad to see you, cousin\r\nPierre; I am just about something here; sit right down there now, and\r\ntell me the news; and I'll sally out with you presently. And tell us\r\nsomething of the emigrants, cousin Pierre,' he slyly added--wishing, you\r\nsee, to get your father's thoughts running that supposed wooing way, so\r\nthat he might catch some sort of corresponding expression you see,\r\nlittle Pierre.\"\r\n\r\n\"I don't know that I precisely understand, aunt; but go on, I am so\r\ninterested; do go on, dear aunt.\"\r\n\r\n\"Well, by many little cunning shifts and contrivances, cousin Ralph kept\r\nyour father there sitting, and sitting in the chair, rattling and\r\nrattling away, and so self-forgetful too, that he never heeded that all\r\nthe while sly cousin Ralph was painting and painting just as fast as\r\never he could; and only making believe laugh at your father's wit; in\r\nshort, cousin Ralph was stealing his portrait, my child.\"\r\n\r\n\"Not _stealing_ it, I hope,\" said Pierre, \"that would be very wicked.\"\r\n\r\n\"Well, then, we won't call it stealing, since I am sure that cousin\r\nRalph kept your father all the time off from him, and so, could not have\r\npossibly picked his pocket, though indeed, he slyly picked his portrait,\r\nso to speak. And if indeed it was stealing, or any thing of that sort;\r\nyet seeing how much comfort that portrait has been to me, Pierre, and\r\nhow much it will yet be to you, I hope; I think we must very heartily\r\nforgive cousin Ralph, for what he then did.\"\r\n\r\n\"Yes, I think we must indeed,\" chimed in little Pierre, now eagerly\r\neying the very portrait in question, which hung over the mantle.\r\n\r\n\"Well, by catching your father two or three times more in that way,\r\ncousin Ralph at last finished the painting; and when it was all framed,\r\nand every way completed, he would have surprised your father by hanging\r\nit boldly up in his room among his other portraits, had not your father\r\none morning suddenly come to him--while, indeed, the very picture itself\r\nwas placed face down on a table and cousin Ralph fixing the cord to\r\nit--came to him, and frightened cousin Ralph by quietly saying, that now\r\nthat he thought of it, it seemed to him that cousin Ralph had been\r\nplaying tricks with him; but he hoped it was not so. 'What do you mean?'\r\nsaid cousin Ralph, a little flurried. 'You have not been hanging my\r\nportrait up here, have you, cousin Ralph?' said your father, glancing\r\nalong the walls. 'I'm glad I don't see it. It is my whim, cousin\r\nRalph,--and perhaps it is a very silly one,--but if you have been lately\r\npainting my portrait, I want you to destroy it; at any rate, don't show\r\nit to any one, keep it out of sight. What's that you have there, cousin\r\nRalph?'\r\n\r\n\"Cousin Ralph was now more and more fluttered; not knowing what to\r\nmake--as indeed, to this day, I don't completely myself--of your\r\nfather's strange manner. But he rallied, and said--'This, cousin Pierre,\r\nis a secret portrait I have here; you must be aware that we\r\nportrait-painters are sometimes called upon to paint such. I, therefore,\r\ncan not show it to you, or tell you any thing about it.'\r\n\r\n\"'Have you been painting my portrait or not, cousin Ralph?' said your\r\nfather, very suddenly and pointedly.\r\n\r\n\"'I have painted nothing that looks as you there look,' said cousin\r\nRalph, evasively, observing in your father's face a fierce-like\r\nexpression, which he had never seen there before. And more than that,\r\nyour father could not get from him.\"\r\n\r\n\"And what then?\" said little Pierre.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AKSAEZ2TYMG5E1MXWWGGY","peer_type":"subsection","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AN24VYEFZD6SMD19K1BP2","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AN2566YB2Y8ZCZVGBREXM","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:57.503Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:11.899Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}