Calico Illustrated Calssics: The House of the Seven Gables
2 The Little Shop Window Before sunrise Miss Hepzibah Pyncheon stood in front of her mirror and glared at her image She was a pale thin rusty-jointed maiden of sixty years But she was no more unhappy with her appearance than she had been at any hour of her life Her scowl was habit not anger Miss Hepzibah’s vision was poor and the constant scowl came from her efforts to see beyond the end of her own nose Though she looked hard and bitter nothing could be further from the truth She was tender-hearted and devoted to her brother though he was far away and in horrible 10
circumstance Her only character flaws were shyness and more than a little family pride Hepzibah glanced at a miniature of her gentle beautiful brother Don’t be ashamed of me she whispered I’m doing this for you She hurried through the darkened passages of the house pausing only once in a shadowy parlor The room contained some antique tables and uncomfortable chairs scattered about on the worn carpet There were only three truly noteworthy pieces a framed map of the mythic Pyncheon holdings in Maine a fine oak chair and the portrait of old Colonel Pyncheon Miss Hepzibah glared up at the portrait and then bowed her head What would Colonel Pyncheon think of what she was about to do She shook herself and hurried on to her destination On the lowest level in a gable facing the street a Pyncheon had set up a shop nearly a century before The shop was closed soon after 11
and left undisturbed for many years as the family tried to forget such a blot on their history The Pyncheons were not shopkeepers And yet Miss Hepzibah had polished the floors and counters of the shop She had stocked it with trinkets and toys Gingerbread elephants tramped across the windowsill Tall barrels of flour apples and cornmeal stood in a neat row near the counter The antique scale was as polished as rust and ruin would allow Like many aging gentlewomen Miss Hepzibah was opening a shop She already had a small income from renting part of the house to a young photographer But that brought in so little she was forced to seek other income or starve Yet no occupation seemed less suited to the shy scowling woman than selling things Miss Hepzibah had considered her options Her hands trembled too much to be a seamstress She had toyed with the idea of opening a school but she simply did not like children They frightened her and she 12
suspected that modern children actually knew more than she As Miss Hepzibah bustled around the shop her sighs came so rapidly that it seemed she must be a thing of steam and not a human at all Finally she hauled the bar free from the door and hung an open sign with trembling hands This last action seemed to sap the last of Hepzibah’s courage She dashed back into the house threw herself in the oak chair and wept As Miss Hepzibah Pyncheon sat on the oak chair with her hands over her face she heard a terrifying sound The little bell suspended over the shop door tinkled Her first customer had arrived She leaped to her feet and rushed into the shop With her pale face and scowl she looked better prepared to face a burglar than a customer The customer stood in the doorway It was a slender young man in his early twenties with a brown beard and mustache He wore a simple 13
