The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-09-23

to be an improvement on what he had done before. He thought that he had succeeded, and declared the story ''as good as anything I can ever hope to
 aThe House of the Seven Gabies'' did, indeed, have most gratifying recept- ion from the public; but to most read CTS 1t will always take second rank with The Scarlet Letter" For some reason the new story was popular in England. which gratified the author. As boy his ambition had been Ito be an author and have my books read in Eng land"
 Hawthorne drew largely on tradi- tions concernig his own family for this story. His great gradfather had been Q Magistrate in Salem at the time of the wttchcraft craze, and curse had been pronounced on his family by one of the victims who suffered on Witches Hill. Altogether "The House of the Seven Gables is a weird story. full of ghosts. hereditary curses and sud- den deaths. Phoebe furnishes all the sunshine in the tale, which, like most of Hawthorne's, is almost too full of sombre shades. And yet who would tighten single shadow!
 For an ordinary person to open a shop is no great matter. It is merely bushes venture which may or may
 
 c pedigree, a coat of arms and gentle bringing up opens shop in the corner Of his or her ancestral mansion, 1t is a revolution, a shattering of traditions. a topping of prejudices and Q violent assassination of family pride. So when Miss Hepzibah Pyncheon inaugurated her little shop in corner of the House of the Seven Gables she arrayed herself in her best black silk and stalk ed behind the counter, fully believing that she realized how the martyrs felt when they trod the path to execution.
 Already Miss Hepzibah had suffered the humiliation of letting room in one of the gables of her great and gloomy old house. Old Maid Pyncheon. as the neighbors called her, opened her little shop because she was cruelty poor, and as her brother was coming home from State prison, where he had been for thirty years, she had to have money to buy food for him.
 Clifford Pyncheon had been imprts- oned for the murder of his uncle, Jaf- frey. He might have been hanged. but as the evidence was purely cfrcumstan- tial, he was simply told to immure him. self for life In a capacious stone coffin called State prison. And now he had been pardoned out and was coming home again to the only creature in the whole world who believed in him.
 She had taken from her writing desk that morning a miniature done In Malbone's best style. with those strokes which make one imagine that artist holding his breath as he put them on It was the picture of a young man in a silk dressing gown of an old fashion. the soft richness of which was we'll adapted to the countenance of reveric. with its full tender lips and beautiful eyes that seemed to indicate not so much capacity of thought as gentle aud voluminous emotion.
 Poor Clifford, with his overwhelming love for the beautiful--the world had been rude to him indeedl But then there was a curse over the Pyncheons and over the House of the Seven Ga- bIes especially. Ola Colonel Pyncheon, whose grim portrait with a sword Tn one hand and the Bible in the other hung in the oak parlor' nao ,taa Drousns ~ on the family when he prosecuted Mathew Maule for a wizard and seized hIs little NabotF's vineyard to build his grand house on 200 years before. Az Maule stood on the scaffold he nad pointed his finger at the stern coionei. sitting there on horseback, and cried o,it. "God shall give them blood to drink" Ever since when Pynch- con was deeply stirred by emotion he had @ certain curious gurgle in ms throat and people whispered and said; 'sHe is drinking blood"
 Miss HepZlDan nao tuS CuElOus SNt gle in her throat now as she sank into the great arm chair beneath the col oneIs portrait. In that very chair where the old maid sat Colonel 'Pynch- con had been found sitting stone dead by the great company which had came to the kousewarmAng on the comple- tion of the House of Seven Gables. In that chair. too, had been found dead the Pyncheon whom his nephew Cliff ford had been accused of staying.
 And now the tinkling of the little hell on the shop door told Old Maid pyncheon that the crisis was upon ner. she stalked frowningly into the "store." Hepzibah had the softest, kJndest heart in the world, but she was near-sighted and it made her scowl k~i0htfully, so that people called her cross. grabbed and sourS But the snop bell had only announced the entrance of Miss Hebzibahs lodger. young Hol- grave, the photographer,
 80, my dear Miss Pyncheon sald tha ,voung man. T am glad to see that vou have not shrunk from your good nurpose. I merely looked In to oner my best wishes and ask if I can as- sist you in any way"
 Coming in from the morning sum shine as he did,, young Holgrave seem ed to bring some of the freshness and cheeriness of 1t with him. He was slender youth of about two and twen- tv with rather a grave face and thoughtful expression for his years. but also of 8 springy alaerity and vIeor that showed not only physically hui made themselves felt in his char
 Hepsibah broke forth into hyster- ical giggle and then began to sob. "Oh. Mir Holgrave." she cried as soon as she could speak. T can never go through with 1t. Neverl Neveri I wish were dead and in the old fam ily tomb with all my forefathers. The world is too chill and hard and am foo old too feeble and too hopeless"
 "Oh, believe me-" replied the young l man. these feelings will not trouble | won after you are once fairly in the | midst of your enterprise. Standing as vou do on the outer verge of your | long seclusion, you people the world | with shapes which will prove as un- real as the giants of a child's fairy | book. I find nothing to singular in | life as that everything appears to lose | it's substance as soon as we actually | grapple with it. No lady of your house has ever done a more heroic | thing than you are doing today, and | if the Pyncheons had all acted as mo- bly, doubt If the curse of old Wiz ard Maule would have had much weight | with Providence against them. Let me be your first customer. What do you charge for half a dozen of those biscuits"
 Let me be lady moment long erT' said Hepzibah. as she put the bis cult into his hand and refused com