The House of the Seven Gables

Phoebe goes into the garden, which had initially seemed overgrown, but the more she looks at it, the more she realizes that someone is actually making an effort, noticing both the pruning of fruit trees and weeding.

The garden has a fountain in the middle of it, which is rimmed with mossy stones, that runs off under the fence. There is also a rooster and chickens who live here. Mr. Holgrave has been tending to the garden, and he and Phoebe talk as she feeds the chickens. Mr. Holgrave praises her for her way with the birds.

Holgrave explains that he likes to do some tending of the garden as a means of refreshing himself. He tells Phoebe that he approached Hepzibah about lodging in one of the gables because the darkness of the house is “like a bandage over one’s eyes,” which keeps him from becoming too “dazzled” with his own trade, where he “make[s] pictures out of sunshine” (91). He enjoys living in his gable.

He shows her a miniature daguerreotype, which Phoebe hands back quickly, telling him that the face has been following her all day, assuming that it is the face of Colonel Pyncheon, only modernized. Phoebe tells Holgrave that she has seen a very sweet and amiable face in the miniature that Hepzibah has shown her, and Holgrave seems interested, having never seen the miniature but having wanted to. He suggests that there might be something “wild” in the countenance in the miniature, “perhaps something dark and sinister” (93). Mr. Holgrave states that a tribunal has settled the nature of the man represented in the miniature, anyway, and Phoebe retreats, not seeming to understand him.

They remain in each other’s company, though, and Holgrave suggests that she take over care of the flowers, which will allow him to concentrate on the vegetables. Phoebe stays, thinking about Holgrave and weeding a flower bed. Holgrave warns her not to drink from the fountain, “Maule’s well,” because it is “bewitched.”

She returns to the house, seeing Hepzibah sitting in the dark and speaks to her back, but there seems to be another voice, barely formed, in the room. Phoebe leaves and returns to the room and asks Hepzibah if anyone else has been in the room. Hepzibah says no.

In the middle of the night Phoebe, only half-awake, seems to hear this same strange, unformed voice, with a “hush through it” (96), as well as a similarly unformed step on the stairs.

Some of Hepzibah’s thinness is due to her disinterest in cooking, but when Phoebe wakes up, the two of them make breakfast together. Hepzibah seems more alive and even has color to her cheeks as she rakes out the coal, which seems particularly surprising to Phoebe considering Hepzibah’s general distaste for housekeeping.

The table is set, complete with the family china and some flowers Phoebe has picked from the garden. There are three place settings rather than two, which confuses Phoebe. Hepzibah is overwhelmed with emotions, referring to “poor Clifford,” and Phoebe hears the same light step that she had heard the night before. Hepzibah opens the door to reveal an older man with long, grey hair and an odd expression that seems to reflect his attempt to understand his surroundings.

Clifford sits down at the table, and Phoebe realizes this is the man in the miniature portrait Hepzibah showed her. Clifford asks Hepzibah if she is mad at him; it seems that he is not used to Hepzibah’s scowl. She assures him that she is not mad at all and only loves him. He has a strange beauty and likewise appreciates beauty, remarking on the roses Phoebe has cut for the table. He recoils from Hepzibah’s age as he is drawn to Phoebe’s young beauty. He seems frightened of the large portrait of Colonel Pyncheon, and at his request, Hepzibah covers—but does not remove—the portrait.

The shop bell rings, which startles Clifford. Hepzibah explains that she has been forced to open the shop to support herself and hopes that Clifford is not ashamed. Clifford begins to cry, asking how he could possibly be further ashamed. He falls asleep.

Phoebe responds to the shop bell, finding the boy who was Hepzibah’s first customer, and who devours gingerbread, waiting. A man arrives in the shop who carries himself with an air of what Phoebe assumes to be deserved importance. He has a smile that seems almost overwhelming in its power. Judge Pyncheon mistakes Phoebe for a hired shopkeeper, but they soon realize that they are cousins.

The judge attempts to give his cousin a kiss, but she pulls back from him, without consciously doing so. The judge’s smile is immediately replaced by a frown, which seems deeper than mere annoyance, and Phoebe realizes that the judge is the man whose daguerreotype Mr. Holgrave showed her. She also remembers Holgrave’s comment that a daguerreotype reveals the true nature of people.

Phoebe also places the judge in relation to another image, that of Colonel Pyncheon, and he seems to simply be a modern version of the Puritan. The narrator also steps in to compare the two men, describing the judge as a watered-down version of the colonel but also noting that both deceive with their magnetic smiles. Phoebe also notices a strange sound that the judge makes in his throat, recalling Matthew Maule’s curse on the colonel, “God will give him blood to drink!” (8).

Judge Pyncheon says he wants to see Clifford and implies that Phoebe should be afraid of Clifford, to which Phoebe protests. When Phoebe halts the judge from going further into the house, he corrects her, telling her that she, rather than he, is a guest in the house. He suggests that Clifford come to stay with him in the country, where he can take advantage of the luxurious lifestyle of the judge, but Hepzibah insists that the house of the seven gables is his home. Hepzibah blocks the judge from going further into the house by standing in a doorway. Clifford begs Hepzibah to prevent the judge from coming into the house, and the judge’s manner changes, becoming frightening. The judge returns to his powerful smile and says he will return another time.

Phoebe is confused and asks Hepzibah why she is so set against the judge, concluding that Hepzibah is bitter as the result of a family feud.

Hepzibah wants to do everything she can to make Clifford comfortable and longs for her own presence to soothe him, but she also knows that she is “a grief to Clifford” (136) due to what he perceives as her ugliness and clumsiness, both of which grate on Clifford’s sensibilities. As a result, she turns to Phoebe to make her brother comfortable. Though Hepzibah ardently wishes that she could soothe her brother, she has no jealousy toward Phoebe. In turn, Phoebe takes up the task almost effortlessly, and she becomes essential to both Hepzibah and Clifford.

Phoebe is not intrigued by the aura of mystery that surrounds Clifford. Instead, she is sympathetic toward him. Within a few days of Clifford’s arrival, the three of them have a routine: Clifford falls asleep in his chair in the morning, when Hepzibah looks after him and Phoebe works in the shop. In the afternoon, Hepzibah and Phoebe switch roles. The public quickly understands this routine, with most people visiting the shop in the morning during Phoebe’s hours.