The House of The Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne Chapter 19 Page 29

shirt-bosom, and a grim frown on his swarthily white visage, and motion the foreign vagabond away!

Was ever before such a grinding out of jigs and waltzes, where nobody was in the cue to dance? Yes, very often. This contrast, or intermingling of tragedy with mirth, happens daily, hourly, momently. The gloomy and desolate old house, deserted of life, and with awful Death sitting sternly in its solitude, was the emblem of many a human heart, which, nevertheless, is compelled to hear the thrill and echo of the world’s gayety around it.

Before the conclusion of the Italian’s performance, a couple of men happened to be passing, On their way to dinner. “I say, you young French fellow!” called out one of them, — ”come away from that doorstep, and go somewhere