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Thus unscrupulouslydid the old gentlewoman sacrifice the continuance, perhaps, of an ancientfeathered race, with no better end than to supply her brother with a daintythat hardly filled the bowl of a tea-spoon! It must have been in reference tothis outrage that Chanticleer, the next day, accompanied by the bereaved motherof the egg, took his post in front of Phœbe and Clifford, and deliveredhimself of a harangue that might have proved as long as his own pedigree, butfor a fit of merriment on Phœbe’s part. Hereupon, the offended fowlstalked away on his long stilts, and utterly withdrew his notice from Phœbeand the rest of human nature, until she made her peace with an offering ofspice-cake, which, next to snails, was the delicacy most in favor with hisaristocratic taste. He delighted in the swell and subsidence ofthe rhythm, and the happily recurring rhyme. Nor was Clifford incapable offeeling the sentiment of poetry,—not, perhaps, where it was highest ordeepest, but where it was most flitting and ethereal.
injured in crash that left vehicle nearly split in half in Sylmar
And yet, as he felt thenecessity of responding to her look of inquiry, the smile disappeared. Pyncheon Street, in front of the House of the Seven Gables, was a farpleasanter scene than a by-lane, confined by shabby fences, and bordered withwooden dwellings of the meaner class, could reasonably be expected to present.Nature made sweet amends, that morning, for the five unkindly days which hadpreceded it. It would have been enough to live for, merely to look up at thewide benediction of the sky, or as much of it as was visible between thehouses, genial once more with sunshine. Every object was agreeable, whether tobe gazed at in the breadth, or examined more minutely. Such, for example, werethe well-washed pebbles and gravel of the sidewalk; even the sky-reflectingpools in the centre of the street; and the grass, now freshly verdant, thatcrept along the base of the fences, on the other side of which, if one peepedover, was seen the multifarious growth of gardens. Vegetable productions, ofwhatever kind, seemed more than negatively happy, in the juicy warmth andabundance of their life.
Watch the Petersen Museum's massive renovation in this time-lapse video
For herself, she waslike a person in a dream, when the will always sleeps. Clifford, ordinarily sodestitute of this faculty, had found it in the tension of the crisis. Nevertheless, in spite of this perception that the Judge would draw all humanaid to his own behalf, Hepzibah was so unaccustomed to act for herself, thatthe least word of counsel would have swayed her to any mode of action. LittlePhœbe Pyncheon would at once have lighted up the whole scene, if not by anyavailable suggestion, yet simply by the warm vivacity of her character. Young and unknown, mere vagrantadventurer as he was, she had been conscious of a force in Holgrave which mightwell adapt him to be the champion of a crisis. With this thought in her mind,she unbolted a door, cobwebbed and long disused, but which had served as aformer medium of communication between her own part of the house and the gablewhere the wandering daguerreotypist had now established his temporary home.
A Day Behind the Counter
And it rendered his aspect not the less,but more frightful, that it seemed not to express wrath or hatred, but acertain hot fellness of purpose, which annihilated everything but itself. Under this delicate and powerful influence he sat more erect, and looked outfrom his eyes with a glance that took note of what it rested on. It was not somuch that his expression grew more intellectual; this, though it had its share,was not the most peculiar effect.
It has already been observed, that, in the basement story of the gable frontingon the street, an unworthy ancestor, nearly a century ago, had fitted up ashop. Ever since the old gentleman retired from trade, and fell asleep underhis coffin-lid, not only the shop-door, but the inner arrangements, had beensuffered to remain unchanged; while the dust of ages gathered inch-deep overthe shelves and counter, and partly filled an old pair of scales, as if it wereof value enough to be weighed. It treasured itself up, too, in the half-opentill, where there still lingered a base sixpence, worth neither more nor lessthan the hereditary pride which had here been put to shame. Such had been thestate and condition of the little shop in old Hepzibah’s childhood, whenshe and her brother used to play at hide-and-seek in its forsaken precincts. A descriptive paragraph or two, treating of the seven-gabled mansion in itsmore recent aspect, will bring this preliminary chapter to a close.
The Arched Window
In fact, her cheerful, wholesome presence rejuvenates life in the dusty, mournful House of the Seven Gables. Phoebe and Clifford especially enjoy sitting together in the garden or overlooking the street from a second-floor window. Clifford grows childlike when he watches hummingbirds or blows soap-bubbles, but he cowers whenever he sees Judge Pyncheon at a distance. The next day, though Hepzibah tries to persuade Phoebe that the House is unsuitable for a young girl, Phoebe insists that she can make herself useful, so Hepzibah agrees to let her stay for a while. Phoebe quickly proves herself to be a skilled housekeeper with a knack for business. After a successful day in the shop, Phoebe meets Holgrave in the garden and is puzzled by his forthright manner.
The Old Pyncheon Family
It was quite otherwise with Hepzibah; the Judge’ssmile seemed to operate on her acerbity of heart like sunshine upon vinegar,making it ten times sourer than ever. And then the unnerved man—he that had been born for enjoyment, but hadmet a doom so very wretched—burst into a woman’s passion of tears.It was but of brief continuance, however; soon leaving him in a quiescent, and,to judge by his countenance, not an uncomfortable state. From this mood, too,he partially rallied for an instant, and looked at Hepzibah with a smile, thekeen, half-derisory purport of which was a puzzle to her. Before he had quite sunken away, however, the sharp and peevish tinkle of theshop-bell made itself audible. Striking most disagreeably on Clifford’sauditory organs and the characteristic sensibility of his nerves, it caused himto start upright out of his chair.
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History with a twist: Immersive Haunted Happenings at House of Seven Gables.
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His eye rested on theshop-window, and putting up a pair of gold-bowed spectacles, which he held inhis hand, he minutely surveyed Hepzibah’s little arrangement of toys andcommodities. At first it seemed not to please him,—nay, to cause himexceeding displeasure,—and yet, the very next moment, he smiled. Whilethe latter expression was yet on his lips, he caught a glimpse of Hepzibah, whohad involuntarily bent forward to the window; and then the smile changed fromacrid and disagreeable to the sunniest complacency and benevolence. He bowed,with a happy mixture of dignity and courteous kindliness, and pursued his way.
Characters
Local family preserves and restores Seven Gables - Shelby Star
Local family preserves and restores Seven Gables.
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Indeed, such was the nativegush and play of her spirit, that she was seldom perfectly quiet andundemonstrative, any more than a fountain ever ceases to dimple and warble withits flow. She possessed the gift of song, and that, too, so naturally, that youwould as little think of inquiring whence she had caught it, or what master hadtaught her, as of asking the same questions about a bird, in whose small strainof music we recognize the voice of the Creator as distinctly as in the loudestaccents of his thunder. So long as Phœbe sang, she might stray at her own willabout the house.
And is there no potent and exhilarating cordial in a certainty like this? Now, when thereneeds little more than to signify your acceptance, why do you sit so lumpishlyin your great-great-grandfather’s oaken chair, as if preferring it to thegubernatorial one? We have all heard of King Log; but, in these jostling times,one of that royal kindred will hardly win the race for an electivechief-magistracy. The one heretofore hisfavorite stumbled, this very morning, on the road to town, and must be at oncediscarded. Judge Pyncheon’s neck is too precious to be risked on such acontingency as a stumbling steed. Should all the above business be seasonablygot through with, he might attend the meeting of a charitable society; the veryname of which, however, in the multiplicity of his benevolence, is quiteforgotten; so that this engagement may pass unfulfilled, and no great harmdone.
Could we pause togive another picture of his daily life, with all the appliances now at commandto gratify his instinct for the Beautiful, the garden scenes, that seemed sosweet to him, would look mean and trivial in comparison. And it was in this hour, so full of doubt and awe, that the one miracle waswrought, without which every human existence is a blank. The bliss which makesall things true, beautiful, and holy shone around this youth and maiden. They transfigured the earth, and made itEden again, and themselves the two first dwellers in it.
It was a slender young man, not morethan one or two and twenty years old, with rather a grave and thoughtfulexpression for his years, but likewise a springy alacrity and vigor. Thesequalities were not only perceptible, physically, in his make and motions, butmade themselves felt almost immediately in his character. A brown beard, nottoo silken in its texture, fringed his chin, but as yet without completelyhiding it; he wore a short mustache, too, and his dark, high-featuredcountenance looked all the better for these natural ornaments. As for hisdress, it was of the simplest kind; a summer sack of cheap and ordinarymaterial, thin checkered pantaloons, and a straw hat, by no means of the finestbraid. He was chiefly markedas a gentleman—if such, indeed, he made any claim to be—by therather remarkable whiteness and nicety of his clean linen.
