Summary — Chapter 7: The Guest
Phoebe awakes to find Hepzibah downstairs, deeply immersed
in a cookbook. Hepzibah decides to buy a mackerel from a fishmonger walking
along the street and immediately begins cooking it. Phoebe, surprised
by Hepzibah’s sudden energy, helps to cook the large breakfast.
Throughout the cooking, Hepzibah is on an emotional roller-coaster,
hugging Phoebe joyfully one minute and bursting into tears the next.
Phoebe is surprised to see three places set for the meal, and when
they hear the sounds of their long-awaited guest, Hepzibah begs
her to be cheerful no matter what. Finally, with Hepzibah’s assistance,
in walks their guest, Hepzibah’s long-absent brother, Clifford.
He wanders about in confusion, addresses his sister in the third
person, and though he is quite taken with Phoebe, he can barely
place her in the family. Phoebe eventually recognizes him as the
man whose miniature portrait Hepzibah keeps in her drawer. Clifford
eats his food ravenously, but he cannot look his sister in the face
and keeps casting his eyes around so that he does not have to look
at the ugliness of Hepzibah’s scowl.
After breakfast, Clifford begins to look around the room.
It becomes apparent that, for all his frailty, he is at heart a
sybarite—a person who devotes his life to the sensual pleasures
of sight, sound, and touch. Clifford takes particular pleasure in
the old house and the pleasant sight of young Phoebe. When he spots
the old portrait of Colonel Pyncheon, however, Clifford recoils
in horror and asks that it be removed. Hepzibah replies that, as
Clifford well knows, she can do no such thing, but she agrees to
cover it with a cloth instead. The sudden ring of the shop bell
greatly troubles Clifford. Hepzibah explains to him that times have
changed and that they are now so poor that she has been forced to
take up shop-keeping. She frets that by doing so she has brought
shame on the family, but Clifford replies that he cannot be shamed
further and is not bothered by Hepzibah’s occupation. He weeps,
however, over the ruins of his life. Eventually, he falls asleep
in his chair, while Hepzibah looks at his face and sheds silent
tears.
Summary — Chapter 8: The Pyncheon of To-day
The shop bell that so startled Clifford turns out to have
announced the arrival of a new customer. This new arrival is the
small boy who bought gingerbread from Hepzibah before. As the boy
leaves the shop, in walks a portly man with a very noble bearing
and a wide and endearing smile. This is no ordinary smile, for it
seems to draw in anyone who sees it. Phoebe meets him, and the stranger
at first mistakes her for a new assistant hired by Hepzibah. Once
the stranger finds out who Phoebe is, however, he introduces himself
as her cousin, Judge Pyncheon. As a way of greeting Phoebe, the
Judge leans forward to kiss her, but Phoebe instinctively pulls
back in spite of herself. This revulsion briefly annoys the Judge,
and a shadow seems to pass over his face. His bright smile is suddenly
replaced by a great frown, and in this frown Phoebe thinks she sees
the Judge’s true nature, albeit only for a moment. Phoebe also realizes
that this Judge Pyncheon is the same man as the smiling but unforgiving
figure portrayed in the daguerreotype that Holgrave showed her. Phoebe
recalls Holgrave’s claim that daguerreotypes, when developed in
the sunlight, reveal truths about people that portraits do not.
Phoebe is amazed at how similar Judge Pyncheon is to
the portrait of Colonel Pyncheon: the Judge seems to be simply an
updated version of the old Pyncheon patriarch. The narrator interjects
at this point, remarking on the many similarities between these
two personages, including a certain greediness and an ability to
hide a rather ruthless nature beneath a friendly exterior. The narrator
also notes that, in most respects, Judge Pyncheon is a weaker, less
potent version of his ancestor. In addition to the physical similarities, Phoebe
notices a more sinister connection to the past when the Judge makes
a small noise in his throat, gurgling slightly as he does so. The
noise makes Phoebe suddenly recall Matthew Maule’s curse on Colonel
Pyncheon—“God will give him blood to drink”—and the whispered rumors
that the blood can supposedly be heard to gurgle in the throats
of Pyncheons. Judge Pyncheon asks to speak to Hepzibah and guesses
that Clifford has arrived. He suggests that Phoebe may be scared
of Clifford, something she is surprised to hear and against which
she protests. Judge Pyncheon cryptically implies to her, however,
that Clifford has done something terrible, but that it is best she
think well of him and so remain ignorant of what he has done. The
Judge says he wants to have a word with Clifford.
As the Judge moves past Phoebe toward the kitchen, Hepzibah appears
and resolutely blocks his way. In an effort to soften her, Judge
Pyncheon makes a kindly offer to support Hepzibah and Clifford financially,
but Hepzibah refuses, her eyes glowing with bitterness and maybe
even hatred. From the kitchen, Clifford, who is now awake, begs
Hepzibah to make the Judge go away, but his entreaties are more
pitiable than strong. When the Judge hears the sound of Clifford’s
voice, however, the narrator tells us that “a red fire kindled in
[the Judge’s] eyes; and he made a quick pace forward, with something
inexpressibly fierce and grim, darkening forth, as it were, out
of the whole man.” Hepzibah stands strong, however, and manages
to prevent the Judge from entering the house. The Judge quickly
calms himself and returns to his usual congeniality, adding that
he hopes to visit the house later, when Clifford and Hepzibah are
in a better mood. He leaves beaming his great false smile. -Hepzibah
collapses after the encounter and asks Phoebe to entertain Clifford
for the morning. Phoebe goes to speak with the old man, deciding
that there must be some old feud between Judge Pyncheon and his
cousins.
Analysis — Chapters 7–8
Clifford is a figure shrouded by suspense, and in Chapter 7 Hawthorne
uses the setting of the table to draw out the suspense until the very
final moment. From the moment that Phoebe enters the kitchen, it
becomes clear to her that something unusual is afoot. As the action
unfolds, every detail emphasizes how Hepzibah’s behavior has changed.
She is immersed in a cookbook when we first find her, a sure indication
that she is trying something new. The fish seller makes his appearance,
and Hepzibah rushes to get his attention, a sharp contrast to the
earlier self who appears incapable of making even the simplest decisions.
And there is the noteworthy addition of a third place to the table.
The house that was, when we first saw it, so definitively the domain
of one woman has tripled its number of places almost overnight.
When Clifford finally appears, however, he cuts something of an
anticlimactic figure. He is almost delirious, a doddering old man,
incapable of even looking directly at his sister. He shrinks with
alarm at the smallest things. This homecoming is more tragic than
the one Hepzibah’s frantic preparations lead us to expect, and it
is made all the more pitiable by the fact that our expectations,
like Hepzibah’s, have been raised in Clifford’s absence.
