- end_line
- 4224
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:52.918Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 4180
- text
- mother in any other place. Keep just as cheerful as if I were by
you all the time. Do this, now, I conjure you; and so farewell!"
He folded the note, and was about sealing it, when he hesitated a
moment, and instantly unfolding it, read it to himself. But he could not
adequately comprehend his own writing, for a sudden cloud came over him.
This passed; and taking his pen hurriedly again, he added the following
postscript:
"Lucy, this note may seem mysterious; but if it shall, I did not
mean to make it so; nor do I know that I could have helped it. But
the only reason is this, Lucy: the matter which I have alluded to,
is of such a nature, that, for the present I stand virtually
pledged not to disclose it to any person but those more directly
involved in it. But where one can not reveal the thing itself, it
only makes it the more mysterious to write round it this way. So
merely know me entirely unmenaced in person, and eternally faithful
to you; and so be at rest till I see you."
Then sealing the note, and ringing the bell, he gave it in strict charge
to a servant, with directions to deliver it at the earliest practicable
moment, and not wait for any answer. But as the messenger was departing
the chamber, he called him back, and taking the sealed note again, and
hollowing it in his hand, scrawled inside of it in pencil the following
words: "Don't write me; don't inquire for me;" and then returned it to
the man, who quitted him, leaving Pierre rooted in thought in the middle
of the room.
But he soon roused himself, and left the mansion; and seeking the cool,
refreshing meadow stream, where it formed a deep and shady pool, he
bathed; and returning invigorated to his chamber, changed his entire
dress; in the little trifling concernments of his toilette, striving
utterly to banish all thought of that weight upon his soul. Never did he
array himself with more solicitude for effect. It was one of his fond
mother's whims to perfume the lighter contents of his wardrobe; and it
was one of his own little femininenesses--of the sort sometimes
curiously observable in very robust-bodied and big-souled men, as
Mohammed, for example--to be very partial to all pleasant essences. So
that when once more he left the mansion in order to freshen his cheek
anew to meet the keen glance of his mother--to whom the secret of his
possible pallor could not be divulged; Pierre went forth all redolent;
but alas! his body only the embalming cerements of his buried dead
within.
- title
- Chunk 2