Summary — Chapter 19: Alice’s Posies
Pyncheon Street, which runs in front of the house of the
seven gables, is beautiful and abounds with vegetables growing in
the neighbors’ gardens and the leaves of the great Pyncheon elm
whispering in the wind. Alice’s Posies, the flowers that grow in
the dust between two gables, have bloomed. Uncle Venner passes by,
but Holgrave, from his window, tells him no one is home. A customer bangs
angrily on the door of Hepzibah’s store, but a neighbor says the
brother and sister have left. Little Ned Higgins finds the store closed
when he tries to buy a gingerbread man, and the workmen guffaw that
the business has already gone under. A butcher who knocks grumbles
about being ignored. The Judge’s horse still stands where the Judge
left it, and some villagers begin to suspect bloody deeds. The organ-grinder
returns and plays in front of the window, but a man tells him the
city marshal is coming to investigate and warns him to be gone.
The novel remarks that this is just as well: it would be a terrifying
sight if Judge Pyncheon were to answer the door, his shirt caked
in blood. Phoebe returns, as good and bright as ever. Ned Higgins,
from a distance, shouts and warns that there is something evil inside
the house, and although Phoebe assumes he has been scared by Hepzibah’s
scowl, she enters with some apprehension. The door opens a crack
and slams shut once she has entered.
Summary — Chapter 20: The Flower of Eden
Phoebe is pulled into the house by a strange, warm hand,
and when she steps into the light she realizes it is Holgrave. Holgrave
has an attitude of genuine warmth, as if something wonderful has
happened, but he refuses to let Phoebe look in the parlor. He shows
her his old daguerreotype of Judge Pyncheon and then a new one he
has just made of the Judge lying dead. Holgrave tells Phoebe that
he has not told the police or called witnesses because he knows
that to do so would implicate the absent Clifford and Hepzibah,
and he hopes that the two return soon. Holgrave mentions that it
would have been better had Hepzibah and Clifford immediately made
the Judge’s death public, since the circumstances so strongly resemble the
death of Clifford’s uncle Jaffrey Pyncheon, for which Clifford was
blamed. Holgrave adds that Clifford was blamed largely due to the
efforts of the Judge. Phoebe is shocked and wants to immediately
inform the village of what has happened, but Holgrave is possessed
by a strange joy, and finally tells Phoebe he loves her. Phoebe is
doubtful that she can make a restless spirit like Holgrave happy, but
he convinces her that he is willing to give all of this up for her. Phoebe
protests this vow, but she eventually caves in and tells Holgrave
she loves him as well. At that moment, Clifford and Hepzibah return
to the house of the seven gables. When they see the young people,
Hepzibah is so glad she is finally able to set down her burden of
grief that she bursts into tears.
Summary — Chapter 21: The Departure
The death of Judge Pyncheon creates only a mild sensation
around town, but it does prompt rumors about the man’s ugly past.
The death of old Jaffrey Pyncheon thirty or forty years before was
dismissed by doctors as an accident, but circumstances made it seem suspicious,
and the suspicion fell on Clifford. However, it turns out that,
in his youth, the Judge was a wild and hot-tempered man, and it
is implied that one night, as he rummaged through his uncle’s papers,
the younger Jaffrey Pyncheon was surprised by the older Jaffrey
Pyncheon, who died instantly from shock. The actual cause of his
death was apoplexy, the bloody brain hemorrhage that killed Colonel
Pyncheon, but rather than being dismayed by the sight, young Jaffrey
continued rifling through his uncle’s drawers and destroyed a will
that left the property to Clifford. Aware that his uncle’s death
might arouse suspicion, young Jaffrey -Pyncheon arranged the evidence
to point toward Clifford, and though he may not have intended for
his cousin to be accused of murder, young Jaffrey kept quiet when
Clifford was put on trial. Despite the cruelty of this behavior,
the Judge managed to convince himself he was blameless and tucked
the whole incident away as a -youthful indiscretion.
The Judge would be saddened could he know the circumstances that
followed his death. Unbeknownst to him, his son has died of cholera
in Europe, and his inheritance now goes to Clifford, who decides
to move to the Judge’s lavish estate with Hepzibah, Phoebe, and,
the novel sarcastically notes, that sworn enemy of wealth, Holgrave.
Phoebe teases Holgrave when he remarks with regret that the new
house is built of impermanent wood rather than permanent stone,
and he acknowledges with a melancholy smile that he is rapidly becoming
a conservative. He finds his new views “especially unpardonable
in this dwelling of so much hereditary misfortune,” standing beneath
the stern gaze of the portrait of Colonel Pyncheon, who “rendered
himself [for] so long the Evil Destiny of his race.” Clifford remarks
that the portrait has always made him think of great wealth, and
Holgrave responds by pushing a hidden spring that knocks the portrait
to the floor, revealing an ancient parchment entitling the Pyncheons
to the giant tract of land in Maine. Hepzibah remarks that Clifford
must have found the parchment and, dreamer that he was, told stories
about it. The more literal-minded Judge must have confused the parchment
with the missing records of the older Jaffrey Pyncheon, and it was
this that he was seeking when he came to confront Clifford. Holgrave
adds that he knows about the spring because he is a Maule, and that
the parchment was hidden by the older Matthew Maule’s son when he
built the house.
Uncle Venner jokes that now the claim is not worth a
single share in his farm, but Phoebe protests that Uncle Venner
need no longer go to his farm, as there is an empty cottage on their
property that would be perfect for him. Everyone agrees that Uncle
Venner’s optimistic philosophy would be welcome, and he marvels
at this, as he was once considered a simpleton. Uncle Venner proposes
to join them in a few days, and as the rest of the company get into
their carriage, Hepzibah gives money to little Ned Higgins, her
first and most loyal customer. The two workmen comment that the
world works in mysterious ways, and as Uncle Venner walks past the
house of the seven gables, he thinks he hears the strains of Alice
Pyncheon’s harpsichord.
Analysis — Chapters 19–21
Chapter 19 explicitly sets the
stage for the novel’s conclusion by reintroducing minor characters
and obscuring the primary characters. First of all, the sudden appearance
of characters like the workmen and the gingerbread-guzzling Ned
Higgins seems almost like a curtain call, the story’s cast taking
a final bow before the main characters bring the novel to its conclusion.
Second, this interesting narrative technique pulls the novel out
of the claustrophobic setting of the house and puts it back into
the context of the village, mirroring the transition that the house’s
occupants themselves will make. Despite the commotion surrounding
it, the house seems far less forbidding from the outside than it
does from within, and when Holgrave pops his head out the window
to answer Uncle Venner’s questions, the image is so quaint and neighborly
that it almost makes us forget the terrible sight that lurks inside.
With such a bustling world outside, the house itself seems almost
insignificant. The whole chapter is written as a breath of fresh
air; that we receive it as such presages the relief that awaits
the house’s inhabitants.
