{"id":"01KG8AN2N62YYHZAXNXXSZYARW","cid":"bafkreihks2qpo6micxomzupuubfqfdvf5ttygrt5wzewy6qihj6hmdki24","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3750,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:52.918Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","start_line":3690,"text":"V.\r\n\r\nIf, when the mind roams up and down in the ever-elastic regions of\r\nevanescent invention, any definite form or feature can be assigned to\r\nthe multitudinous shapes it creates out of the incessant dissolvings of\r\nits own prior creations; then might we here attempt to hold and define\r\nthe least shadowy of those reasons, which about the period of\r\nadolescence we now treat of, more frequently occurred to Pierre,\r\nwhenever he essayed to account for his mother's remarkable distaste for\r\nthe portrait. Yet will we venture one sketch.\r\n\r\nYes--sometimes dimly thought Pierre--who knows but cousin Ralph, after\r\nall, may have been not so very far from the truth, when he surmised that\r\nat one time my father did indeed cherish some passing emotion for the\r\nbeautiful young Frenchwoman. And this portrait being painted at that\r\nprecise time, and indeed with the precise purpose of perpetuating some\r\nshadowy testification of the fact in the countenance of the original:\r\ntherefore, its expression is not congenial, is not familiar, is not\r\naltogether agreeable to my mother: because, not only did my father's\r\nfeatures never look so to her (since it was afterward that she first\r\nbecame acquainted with him), but also, that certain womanliness of\r\nwomen; that thing I should perhaps call a tender jealousy, a fastidious\r\nvanity, in any other lady, enables her to perceive that the glance of\r\nthe face in the portrait, is not, in some nameless way, dedicated to\r\nherself, but to some other and unknown object; and therefore, is she\r\nimpatient of it, and it is repelling to her; for she must naturally be\r\nintolerant of any imputed reminiscence in my father, which is not in\r\nsome way connected with her own recollections of him.\r\n\r\nWhereas, the larger and more expansive portrait in the great\r\ndrawing-room, taken in the prime of life; during the best and rosiest\r\ndays of their wedded union; at the particular desire of my mother; and\r\nby a celebrated artist of her own election, and costumed after her own\r\ntaste; and on all hands considered to be, by those who know, a\r\nsingularly happy likeness at the period; a belief spiritually reinforced\r\nby my own dim infantile remembrances; for all these reasons, this\r\ndrawing-room portrait possesses an inestimable charm to her; there, she\r\nindeed beholds her husband as he had really appeared to her; she does\r\nnot vacantly gaze upon an unfamiliar phantom called up from the distant,\r\nand, to her, well-nigh fabulous days of my father's bachelor life. But\r\nin that other portrait, she sees rehearsed to her fond eyes, the latter\r\ntales and legends of his devoted wedded love. Yes, I think now that I\r\nplainly see it must be so. And yet, ever new conceits come vaporing up\r\nin me, as I look on the strange chair-portrait: which, though so very\r\nmuch more unfamiliar to me, than it can possibly be to my mother, still\r\nsometimes seems to say--Pierre, believe not the drawing-room painting;\r\nthat is not thy father; or, at least, is not _all_ of thy father.\r\nConsider in thy mind, Pierre, whether we two paintings may not make only\r\none. Faithful wives are ever over-fond to a certain imaginary image of\r\ntheir husbands; and faithful widows are ever over-reverential to a\r\ncertain imagined ghost of that same imagined image, Pierre. Look again,\r\nI am thy father as he more truly was. In mature life, the world overlays\r\nand varnishes us, Pierre; the thousand proprieties and polished\r\nfinenesses and grimaces intervene, Pierre; then, we, as it were,\r\nabdicate ourselves, and take unto us another self, Pierre; in youth we\r\n_are_, Pierre, but in age we _seem_. Look again. I am thy real father,\r\nso much the more truly, as thou thinkest thou recognizest me not,\r\nPierre. To their young children, fathers are not wont to unfold\r\nthemselves entirely, Pierre. There are a thousand and one odd little\r\nyouthful peccadilloes, that we think we may as well not divulge to them,\r\nPierre. Consider this strange, ambiguous smile, Pierre; more narrowly\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AKSACDTV381FFR3QKK30W","peer_type":"subsection","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AN2N6W56RG5SSPSZ13D24","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:58.022Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:12.198Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}