The House of the Seven Gables (25 page)
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Authors: Nathaniel Hawthorne
Tags: #Fiction, #Salem (Mass.), #Family, #Domestic fiction, #Occult & Supernatural, #Occult fiction, #Juvenile Fiction, #Classics, #Haunted houses, #Historical, #Literary, #Historical Fiction
Maule's well, all this time, though left in solitude, was throwing up a succession of kaleidoscopic pictures, in which a gifted eye might have seen foreshadowed the coming fortunes of Hepzibah and Clifford, and the descendant of the legendary wizard, and the village maiden, over whom he had thrown Love's web of sorcery. The Pyncheon Elm, moreover, with what foliage the September gale had spared to it, whispered unintelligible prophecies. And wise Uncle Venner, passing slowly from the ruinous porch, seemed to hear a strain of music, and fancied that sweet Alice Pyncheon—after witnessing these deeds, this bygone woe and this present happiness, of her kindred mortals—had given one farewell touch of a spirit's joy upon her harpsichord, as she floated heavenward from the
House of the Seven Gables!
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