{"id":"01KG8AN256NSAXRYMWWJNM3JP0","cid":"bafkreibrq4ppgutpiuyewwtibgbezba7jwqgvosciycwuyfrvf2im57lsi","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3672,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:52.918Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 5","source_file":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","start_line":3612,"text":"And so, after this scene, as usual, one by one, the fleet years ran on;\r\ntill the little child Pierre had grown up to be the tall Master Pierre,\r\nand could call the picture his own; and now, in the privacy of his own\r\nlittle closet, could stand, or lean, or sit before it all day long, if\r\nhe pleased, and keep thinking, and thinking, and thinking, and thinking,\r\ntill by-and-by all thoughts were blurred, and at last there were no\r\nthoughts at all.\r\n\r\nBefore the picture was sent to him, in his fifteenth year, it had been\r\nonly through the inadvertence of his mother, or rather through a casual\r\npassing into a parlor by Pierre, that he had any way learned that his\r\nmother did not approve of the picture. Because, as then Pierre was\r\nstill young, and the picture was the picture of his father, and the\r\ncherished property of a most excellent, and dearly-beloved, affectionate\r\naunt; therefore the mother, with an intuitive delicacy, had refrained\r\nfrom knowingly expressing her peculiar opinion in the presence of little\r\nPierre. And this judicious, though half-unconscious delicacy in the\r\nmother, had been perhaps somewhat singularly answered by a like nicety\r\nof sentiment in the child; for children of a naturally refined\r\norganization, and a gentle nurture, sometimes possess a wonderful, and\r\noften undreamed of, daintiness of propriety, and thoughtfulness, and\r\nforbearance, in matters esteemed a little subtile even by their elders,\r\nand self-elected betters. The little Pierre never disclosed to his\r\nmother that he had, through another person, become aware of her thoughts\r\nconcerning Aunt Dorothea's portrait; he seemed to possess an intuitive\r\nknowledge of the circumstance, that from the difference of their\r\nrelationship to his father, and for other minute reasons, he could in\r\nsome things, with the greater propriety, be more inquisitive concerning\r\nhim, with his aunt, than with his mother, especially touching the matter\r\nof the chair-portrait. And Aunt Dorothea's reasons accounting for his\r\nmother's distaste, long continued satisfactory, or at least not\r\nunsufficiently explanatory.\r\n\r\nAnd when the portrait arrived at the Meadows, it so chanced that his\r\nmother was abroad; and so Pierre silently hung it up in his closet; and\r\nwhen after a day or two his mother returned, he said nothing to her\r\nabout its arrival, being still strangely alive to that certain mild\r\nmystery which invested it, and whose sacredness now he was fearful of\r\nviolating, by provoking any discussion with his mother about Aunt\r\nDorothea's gift, or by permitting himself to be improperly curious\r\nconcerning the reasons of his mother's private and self-reserved\r\nopinions of it. But the first time--and it was not long after the\r\narrival of the portrait--that he knew of his mother's having entered\r\nhis closet; then, when he next saw her, he was prepared to hear what\r\nshe should voluntarily say about the late addition to its\r\nembellishments; but as she omitted all mention of any thing of that\r\nsort, he unobtrusively scanned her countenance, to mark whether any\r\nlittle clouding emotion might be discoverable there. But he could\r\ndiscern none. And as all genuine delicacies are by their nature\r\naccumulative; therefore this reverential, mutual, but only tacit\r\nforbearance of the mother and son, ever after continued uninvaded. And\r\nit was another sweet, and sanctified, and sanctifying bond between them.\r\nFor, whatever some lovers may sometimes say, love does not always abhor\r\na secret, as nature is said to abhor a vacuum. Love is built upon\r\nsecrets, as lovely Venice upon invisible and incorruptible piles in the\r\nsea. Love's secrets, being mysteries, ever pertain to the transcendent\r\nand the infinite; and so they are as airy bridges, by which our further\r\nshadows pass over into the regions of the golden mists and exhalations;\r\nwhence all poetical, lovely thoughts are engendered, and drop into us,\r\nas though pearls should drop from rainbows.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 5"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AKSAEZ2TYMG5E1MXWWGGY","peer_type":"subsection","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AN24Z0R4B1N9Z9RKZNN4V","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AN2N63TCD5PM370SXD03G","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:57.510Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:12.101Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}