Table Of Content
You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. When opened, the back leads to a secret staircase which leads up to the attic. After John Turner III lost the family fortune, the house was acquired by the Ingersolls, who remodeled it again. In the first half of the 18th century, John Turner II remodeled the house in the new Georgian style, adding wood paneling and sash windows. These alterations are preserved, very early examples of Georgian decor. The House of the Seven Gables is one of the oldest surviving timber-framed mansion houses in continental North America, with 17 rooms and over 8,000 square feet (700 m2) including its large cellars.
Matthew Maule (The Elder)
Without directlyanswering her, he turned from the Future, which had heretofore been the themeof his discourse, and began to speak of the influences of the Past. The tone seemed as if meant to be kind and soothing, but yet had a bitternessof sarcasm in it. As for Clifford, an absolute palsy of fear came over him.Apart from any definite cause of dread which his past experience might havegiven him, he felt that native and original horror of the excellent Judge whichis proper to a weak, delicate, and apprehensive character in the presence ofmassive strength. Strength is incomprehensible by weakness, and, therefore, themore terrible.
Clifford Pyncheon
Within, there was a spacious breadth, and an airyheight from floor to roof, now partially filled with smoke and steam, whicheddied voluminously upward and formed a mimic cloud-region over their heads. Atrain of cars was just ready for a start; the locomotive was fretting andfuming, like a steed impatient for a headlong rush; and the bell rang out itshasty peal, so well expressing the brief summons which life vouchsafes to us inits hurried career. Without question or delay,—with the irresistibledecision, if not rather to be called recklessness, which had so strangely takenpossession of him, and through him of Hepzibah,—Clifford impelled hertowards the cars, and assisted her to enter. The signal was given; the enginepuffed forth its short, quick breaths; the train began its movement; and, alongwith a hundred other passengers, these two unwonted travellers sped onward likethe wind.
Holgrave
The baker’s cart,with the harsh music of its bells, had a pleasant effect on Clifford, because,as few things else did, it jingled the very dissonance of yore. One afternoon ascissor-grinder chanced to set his wheel a-going under the Pyncheon Elm, andjust in front of the arched window. Children came running with theirmothers’ scissors, or the carving-knife, or the paternal razor, oranything else that lacked an edge (except, indeed, poor Clifford’s wits),that the grinder might apply the article to his magic wheel, and give it backas good as new. Round went the busily revolving machinery, kept in motion bythe scissor-grinder’s foot, and wore away the hard steel against the hardstone, whence issued an intense and spiteful prolongation of a hiss as fierceas those emitted by Satan and his compeers in Pandemonium, though squeezed intosmaller compass.
XIII: Alice Pyncheon
Neither was there any possibility of satisfying thecovetous little devil. Phœbe threw down a whole handful of cents, which hepicked up with joyless eagerness, handed them over to the Italian forsafekeeping, and immediately recommenced a series of pantomimic petitions formore. It is wonderful how many pleasant incidents continually came to pass in thatsecluded garden-spot when once Phœbe had set herself to look for them. Thither the bees came,however, and plunged into the squash-blossoms, as if there were no othersquash-vines within a long day’s flight, or as if the soil ofHepzibah’s garden gave its productions just the very quality which theselaborious little wizards wanted, in order to impart the Hymettus odor to theirwhole hive of New England honey.
He hada winged nature; she was rather of the vegetable kind, and could hardly be keptlong alive, if drawn up by the roots. Thus it happened that the relationheretofore existing between her brother and herself was changed. At home, shewas his guardian; here, Clifford had become hers, and seemed to comprehendwhatever belonged to their new position with a singular rapidity ofintelligence.
Alice Pyncheon
He warns Hepzibah that if Clifford denies knowledge of this, the Judge will take it as evidence that Clifford should be committed to an asylum. When Hepzibah reluctantly goes in search of Clifford, he is not in his chamber. She soon discovers him in the parlor, laughing wildly at the dead form of the Judge. In terror, she follows a newly lucid, purposeful Clifford out of the House and through the town, where they catch a train to the countryside. 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.
Judge Pyncheon’s son
Worried that Clifford will be blamed for the murder, the brother and sister flee. He excitedly shows her a daguerreotype of the dead Judge and tells her that the curse has been lifted. Holgrave also tells Phoebe he loves her, and she admits to loving him in return. Although the neighbors become suspicious, Hepzibah and Clifford return before the body is discovered.
Poles and Yankees at the House of Seven Gables (U.S - National Park Service
Poles and Yankees at the House of Seven Gables (U.S.
Posted: Fri, 27 Aug 2021 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Somehow, despite the cavernous darkness of the old mansion, Phoebe manages to lighten the gloom. Before Phoebe's arrival, Hepzibah had set aside what pride was left to the family and opened up a "one cent" shop. Thus, although the novel seems to suggest a preference toward the working classes, one can certainly also conclude in a closer reading, that neither the privileged or the working classes are above reproach or solely worthy of praise.
Soended, for that time, the quest for the lost title-deed of the Pyncheonterritory at the Eastward; nor, though often subsequently renewed, has it everyet befallen a Pyncheon to set his eye upon that parchment. In the further progress of the legend, there is a long, grotesque, andoccasionally awe-striking account of the carpenter’s incantations (if sothey are to be called), with a view of discovering the lost document. Itappears to have been his object to convert the mind of Alice into a kind oftelescopic medium, through which Mr. Pyncheon and himself might obtain aglimpse into the spiritual world.
Colonel Pyncheon, the claimant, as wegather from whatever traits of him are preserved, was characterized by an ironenergy of purpose. Matthew Maule, on the other hand, though an obscure man, wasstubborn in the defence of what he considered his right; and, for severalyears, he succeeded in protecting the acre or two of earth which, with his owntoil, he had hewn out of the primeval forest, to be his garden ground andhomestead. Ouracquaintance with the whole subject is derived chiefly from tradition. It wouldbe bold, therefore, and possibly unjust, to venture a decisive opinion as toits merits; although it appears to have been at least a matter of doubt,whether Colonel Pyncheon’s claim were not unduly stretched, in order tomake it cover the small metes and bounds of Matthew Maule.
Phœbe put one of her small hands on each elbow of his chair, and leaned herface towards him, so that he might peruse it as carefully as he would. It isprobable that the latent emotions of this parting hour had revived, in somedegree, his bedimmed and enfeebled faculties. At any rate, Phœbe soon feltthat, if not the profound insight of a seer, yet a more than feminine delicacyof appreciation, was making her heart the subject of its regard. A momentbefore, she had known nothing which she would have sought to hide. Now, as ifsome secret were hinted to her own consciousness through the medium ofanother’s perception, she was fain to let her eyelids droop beneathClifford’s gaze.
The two laborers pass and speculate that Hepzibah has run off because her shop has failed. When the butcher comes, he peeks inside and believes he sees Clifford sitting in the parlor rudely ignoring his knocking. The organ player also arrives and after playing for a bit is warned to move on because rumor has it that the judge has been murdered in the house. Finding Judge Pyncheon's card with his datebook items for the previous day on the back of it on the porch, one of the laborers deems that they should take it to the City Marshal. Phoebe arrives and is warned by Ned Higgins that something wicked is inside. After having tea, Phoebe goes out to the garden, which she finds in a state of decay that has been only slightly modified by a small effort of evident care.
No comments:
Post a Comment