The House of the Seven Gables

"But, dear cousin," said Phoebe, "if the young man is so dangerous, why

do you let him stay? If he does nothing worse, he may set the house on

fire!"

"Why, sometimes," answered Hepzibah, "I have seriously made it a

question, whether I ought not to send him away. But, with all his

oddities, he is a quiet kind of a person, and has such a way of taking

hold of one's mind, that, without exactly liking him (for I don't know

enough of the young man), I should be sorry to lose sight of him

entirely. A woman clings to slight acquaintances when she lives so

much alone as I do."

"But if Mr. Holgrave is a lawless person!" remonstrated Phoebe, a part

of whose essence it was to keep within the limits of law.

"Oh!" said Hepzibah carelessly,--for, formal as she was, still, in her

life's experience, she had gnashed her teeth against human law,--"I

suppose he has a law of his own!"