The House of the Seven Gables

In her grief, Hepzibah is startled by the tinkling of the shop bell: her first customer has arrived. When she rushes into the shop, however, she finds a young gentleman of 21 or 22, well-dressed and looking both grave and vigorous. It’s Holgrave, the daguerreotypist, who has come to offer well-wishes. At this expression of sympathy, Hepzibah bursts into fresh tears and says she cannot go through with the shop opening. Holgrave comforts her, saying that even frightening things, once confronted, lose their terror.

Holgrave also encourages her to think of this as a new stage in her life—one more active and purposeful. After all, nowadays, gentility is associated more with restriction than with privilege; he thinks Hepzibah is acting heroically by giving it up. Hepzibah says she will never understand these “new notions,” but that she appreciates his support. He offers to be Hepzibah’s first customer by purchasing some biscuits, but she gives them to Holgrave free of charge.

Hepzibah feels ashamed when strangers peek at the goods displayed in her shop window. She also hears two laborers chatting outside. One of them, Dixey, criticizes Hepzibah’s scowl, and his companion adds that his own wife tried running a shop but failed. Dixey predicts that it will be a “poor business.” Just as Hepzibah is sure that no customer will ever cross her threshold, the bell tinkles again. A red-cheeked, frizzy-haired schoolboy, Ned Higgins, enters and asks for the gingerbread cookie displayed in the window. She gives it to him for free. Two minutes later, he returns for another, and this time, Hepzibah demands the one-cent payment.

By this time, Hepzibah is finally calm. Invigorated by novelty and effort, she even permits herself an extra spoonful of sugar in her tea. As the morning progresses, however, several more customers straggle in, and Hepzibah endures several rebukes for failing to have root beer or yeast in stock. She is most dismayed by certain customers’ superior airs, imagining that her genteel roots are evident and should still be respected. Even worse is other customers’ sympathetic tones. Eventually, a genuine scowl crosses her face as she begins to resent the “idle aristocracy” to which she had so recently belonged.