The House of The Seven Gables -- [La casa de los siete tejados]




IV. A Day Behind the Counter

IV. Un día detrás del mostrador

TOWARDS noon, Hepzibah saw an elderly gentleman, large and portly, and of remarkably dignified demeanor, passing slowly along on the opposite side of the white and dusty street. On coming within the shadow of the Pyncheon Elm, he stopt, and (taking off his hat, meanwhile, to wipe the perspiration from his brow) seemed to scrutinize, with especial interest, the dilapidated and rusty-visaged House of the Seven Gables. He himself, in a very different style, was as well worth looking at as the house. No better model need be sought, nor could have been found, of a very high order of respectability, which, by some indescribable magic, not merely expressed itself in his looks and gestures, but even governed the fashion of his garments, and rendered them all proper and essential to the man. Without appearing to differ, in any tangible way, from other people′s clothes, there was yet a wide and rich gravity about them that must have been a characteristic of the wearer, since it could not be defined as pertaining either to the cut or material. His gold-headed cane, too,--a serviceable staff, of dark polished wood,--had similar traits, and, had it chosen to take a walk by itself, would have been recognized anywhere as a tolerably adequate representative of its master. This character--which showed itself so strikingly in everything about him, and the effect of which we seek to convey to the reader--went no deeper than his station, habits of life, and external circumstances. One perceived him to be a personage of marked influence and authority; and, especially, you could feel just as certain that he was opulent as if he had exhibited his bank account, or as if you had seen him touching the twigs of the Pyncheon Elm, and, Midas-like, transmuting them to gold. A eso del mediodía, Hepzibah vio pasar por el otro lado de la polvorienta calle a un caballero anciano, grueso y rollizo, de porte singularmente digno. Al llegar a la sombra del olmo de los Pyncheon, el caballero se detuvo y quitándose el sombrero para secarse el sudor de la frente, inspeccionó con interés la decrépita y ruinosa fachada de La Casa de los Siete Tejados. El también, aunque en otro sentido, era digno de atención. No podría buscarse ni encontrarse mejor modelo de la más alta respetabilidad. Esta, por una especie de magia, no sólo se expresaba en sus gestos y apariencia, sino hasta en sus ropas, que parecían apropiadas y esenciales para el hombre. Sin diferir visiblemente de las de los demás, había en ellas una singular e imponente gravedad característica del que las vestía pues no podía atribuirse al corte ni al material. De su bastón de puño dorado y obscura y pulida caña podía decirse lo mismo, y de haber salido a pasear solo, lo hubieran reconocido como auténtico representante de su dueño. Esa respetabilidad que brillaba en todo cuanto le pertenecía y bajo cuyo efecto queremos sumir al lector, no ahondaba más allá del aspecto, costumbres y circunstancias exteriores del caballero. Se notaba que era un personaje de marcada autoridad e influencia, y al contemplarle deducíase que era opulento con tanta seguridad como si fuera enseñando su cuenta bancaria, o como si se le viera tocando el tronco del olmo y transmutándolo en oro como un Midas moderno.
In his youth, he had probably been considered a handsome man; at his present age, his brow was too heavy, his temples too bare, his remaining hair too gray, his eye too cold, his lips too closely compressed, to bear any relation to mere personal beauty. He would have made a good and massive portrait; better now, perhaps, than at any previous period of his life, although his look might grow positively harsh in the process of being fixed upon the canvas. The artist would have found it desirable to study his face, and prove its capacity for varied expression; to darken it with a frown,--to kindle it up with a smile. En su juventud le consideraron, probablemente, como un hombre hermoso. Ahora, las cejas eran demasiado espesas, las sienes demasiado despobladas, el pelo demasiado gris, los ojos en exceso fríos, los labios apretados con demasía para que llamaran la atención sobre su belleza personal. Sería un buen modelo para un retrato mejor hoy, quizá, que en cualquier otro periodo anterior de su vida, aunque su mirada pudiera endurecerse al fijarla en la tela. Un artista disfrutaría estudiando sus rasgos y mostrando su capacidad para variar de expresión, obscurecerla con un fruncimiento de cejas, o iluminarla con una sonrisa.
While the elderly gentleman stood looking at the Pyncheon House, both the frown and the smile passed successively over his countenance. His eye rested on the shop-window, and putting up a pair of gold-bowed spectacles, which he held in his hand, he minutely surveyed Hepzibah′s little arrangement of toys and commodities. At first it seemed not to please him,--nay, to cause him exceeding displeasure,--and yet, the very next moment, he smiled. While the latter expression was yet on his lips, he caught a glimpse of Hepzibah, who had involuntarily bent forward to the window; and then the smile changed from acrid and disagreeable to the sunniest complacency and benevolence. He bowed, with a happy mixture of dignity and courteous kindliness, and pursued his way. Mientras el viejo caballero contemplaba la fachada de la casa de los Pyncheon, el ceño y la sonrisa pasaron sucesivamente por su rostro. Detuvo la mirada en el escaparate y, calándose unos lentes de oro, observó los juguetes y golosinas arreglados por Hepzibah. Al principio, no parecieron agradarle, incluso diríase que le fueron muy desagradables, y, sin embargo, sonrió. Mientras la sonrisa se dibujaba en su rostro, distinguió a Hepzibah, que se había acercado involuntariamente a la ventana, y entonces, su sonrisa acre y desagradable se hizo complaciente y benévola. Saludó con una mezcla de dignidad y cortés benevolencia y siguió su camino.
"There he is !" said Hepzibah to herself, gulping down a very bitter emotion, and, since she could not rid herself of it, trying to drive it back into her heart. "What does he think of it, I wonder ? Does it please him ? Ah ! he is looking back !" -¡Es él ! -se dijo Hepzibah, emocionada-. ¿Qué pensará de todo esto ? ¿Le agrada ?... ¡Ah, vuelve a mirar !
The gentleman had paused in the street, and turned himself half about, still with his eyes fixed on the shop-window. In fact, he wheeled wholly round, and commenced a step or two, as if designing to enter the shop; but, as it chanced, his purpose was anticipated by Hepzibah′s first customer, the little cannibal of Jim Crow, who, staring up at the window, was irresistibly attracted by an elephant of gingerbread. What a grand appetite had this small urchin !--Two Jim Crows immediately after breakfast !--and now an elephant, as a preliminary whet before dinner. By the time this latter purchase was completed, the elderly gentleman had resumed his way, and turned the street corner. El caballero se había detenido y girado a medias para fijar sus ojos otra vez en el escaparate. Acabó por volverse y dio un paso o dos, con evidente propósito de entrar en la tienda, pero este propósito se vio anticipado por el primer cliente de Hepzibah, el insaciable devorador de Jim Crows, que se quedó mirando por la puerta, irresistiblemente atraído por un elefante de pan de jengibre. ¡Qué apetito tan enorme tenía el chiquillo ! ¡Dos Jim Crows inmediatamente después de desayunar y ahora un elefante como bocado preliminar de la comida ! Cuando el niño hubo entrado y hecho su compra el caballero ya había reanudado su camino y doblado la esquina.
"Take it as you like, Cousin Jaffrey," muttered the maiden lady, as she drew back, after cautiously thrusting out her head, and looking up and down the street,--"Take it as you like ! You have seen my little shop-window. Well !--what have you to say ?--is not the Pyncheon House my own, while I′m alive ?" -¡Tómatelo como quieras, primo Jaffrey ! -murmuró la solterona, retirándose al interior, después de asomar cautelosamente la cabeza para mirar a ambos lados de la calle-. ¡Tómatelo como quieras ! Ya has visto mi escaparate; y bien, ¿qué tienes que decir ? ¿No me pertenece la casa de los Pyncheon mientras viva ?
After this incident, Hepzibah retreated to the back parlor, where she at first caught up a half-finished stocking, and began knitting at it with nervous and irregular jerks; but quickly finding herself at odds with the stitches, she threw it aside, and walked hurriedly about the room. At length she paused before the portrait of the stern old Puritan, her ancestor, and the founder of the house. In one sense, this picture had almost faded into the canvas, and hidden itself behind the duskiness of age; in another, she could not but fancy that it had been growing more prominent and strikingly expressive, ever since her earliest familiarity with it as a child. For, while the physical outline and substance were darkening away from the beholder′s eye, the bold, hard, and, at the same time, indirect character of the man seemed to be brought out in a kind of spiritual relief. Such an effect may occasionally be observed in pictures of antique date. They acquire a look which an artist (if he have anything like the complacency of artists nowadays) would never dream of presenting to a patron as his own characteristic expression, but which, nevertheless, we at once recognize as reflecting the unlovely truth of a human soul. In such cases, the painter′s deep conception of his subject′s inward traits has wrought itself into the essence of the picture, and is seen after the superficial coloring has been rubbed off by time. Después de este incidente, Hepzibah se fue al salón y se puso a hacer calceta nerviosamente. Pronto se cansó; las agujas no le obedecían y las dejó para recorrer la estancia a pequeños pasos apresurados de un extremo a otro. Por fin se detuvo delante del retrato del torvo fantasma fundador de la casa. La pintura se había hundido en la tela, a lo largo de los dos siglos, pero le parecía que se había vuelto más prominente y expresiva desde que de niña empezó a familiarizarse con ella, pues mientras el contorno físico se obscurecía, el carácter audaz y duro del hombre poseía una especie de relieve espiritual.
While gazing at the portrait, Hepzibah trembled under its eye. Her hereditary reverence made her afraid to judge the character of the original so harshly as a perception of the truth compelled her to do. But still she gazed, because the face of the picture enabled her--at least, she fancied so--to read more accurately, and to a greater depth, the face which she had just seen in the street. Hepzibah, contemplando el retrato, temblaba bajo los ojos de aquél. Su respeto hereditario le inspiraba miedo al juzgar el carácter del fundador de la casa tan duramente como le impulsaba a hacerlo una súbita percepción de la verdad. Pero siguió mirando, pues imaginaba que la cara del retrato le permitía comprender mejor y más profundamente el rostro que acababa de ver en la calle.
"This is the very man !" murmured she to herself. "Let Jaffrey Pyncheon smile as he will, there is that look beneath ! Put on him a skull-cap, and a band, and a black cloak, and a Bible in one hand and a sword in the other,--then let Jaffrey smile as he might,--nobody would doubt that it was the old Pyncheon come again. He has proved himself the very man to build up a new house ! Perhaps, too, to draw down a new curse !" -Son idénticos -musitó-. Aunque Jaffrey Pyncheon sonría, se parece a éste. Si se pusiera un casquete y un traje negro, y si tomara en una mano la Biblia y en la otra la espada... Entonces sí que aunque sonriera Jaffrey nadie dudaría que el viejo ha resucitado. Ha demostrado que es hombre para edificar una casa nueva y hasta, quizá, para ganarse una nueva maldición.
Thus did Hepzibah bewilder herself with these fantasies of the old time. She had dwelt too much alone,--too long in the Pyncheon House,--until her very brain was impregnated with the dry-rot of its timbers. She needed a walk along the noonday street to keep her sane. Así se aturdía Hepzibah con esas fantasías de los tiempos viejos. Había vivido demasiado sola y demasiado tiempo en la casa de los Pyncheon y su espíritu había quedado tan carcomido como las vigas del edificio. Para rehacerse, precisaba dar un paseo por la soleada calle.
By the spell of contrast, another portrait rose up before her, painted with more daring flattery than any artist would have ventured upon, but yet so delicately touched that the likeness remained perfect. Malbone′s miniature, though from the same original, was far inferior to Hepzibah′s air-drawn picture, at which affection and sorrowful remembrance wrought together. Soft, mildly, and cheerfully contemplative, with full, red lips, just on the verge of a smile, which the eyes seemed to herald by a gentle kindling-up of their orbs ! Feminine traits, moulded inseparably with those of the other sex ! The miniature, likewise, had this last peculiarity; so that you inevitably thought of the original as resembling his mother, and she a lovely and lovable woman, with perhaps some beautiful infirmity of character, that made it all the pleasanter to know and easier to love her. Por el hechizo del contraste, se le presentó otro retrato, pintado con un cariño que ningún artista hubiese tenido, pero con tanta delicadeza que el parecido era perfecto. La miniatura de Malbone, sacada del mismo modelo, era muy inferior a la aérea figura que Hepzibah evocaba al calor de su afecto y de su apenado recuerdo. Dulce, suave y alegremente contemplativa, con rojos y firmes labios que esbozaban una sonrisa, anunciada por los bondadosos ojos desde el fondo de las órbitas. Rasgos femeninos, moldeados inseparablemente con los del otro sexo. La miniatura tenía, además, una última particularidad: inevitablemente hacía pensar que el modelo se parecía a su madre, que por esto debió ser una mujer amable y encantadora, dotada, quizá, de cierta debilidad de carácter que la hacía doblemente adorable.
"Yes," thought Hepzibah, with grief of which it was only the more tolerable portion that welled up from her heart to her eyelids, "they persecuted his mother in him ! He never was a Pyncheon !" -Sí -suspiró Hepzibah profundamente dolorida-; en él persiguieron a su madre. ¡Nunca fue un Pyncheon !
But here the shop-bell rang; it was like a sound from a remote distance,--so far had Hepzibah descended into the sepulchral depths of her reminiscences. On entering the shop, she found an old man there, a humble resident of Pyncheon Street, and whom, for a great many years past, she had suffered to be a kind of familiar of the house. He was an immemorial personage, who seemed always to have had a white head and wrinkles, and never to have possessed but a single tooth, and that a half-decayed one, in the front of the upper jaw. Well advanced as Hepzibah was, she could not remember when Uncle Venner, as the neighborhood called him, had not gone up and down the street, stooping a little and drawing his feet heavily over the gravel or pavement. But still there was something tough and vigorous about him, that not only kept him in daily breath, but enabled him to fill a place which would else have been vacant in the apparently crowded world. To go of errands with his slow and shuffling gait, which made you doubt how he ever was to arrive anywhere; to saw a small household′s foot or two of firewood, or knock to pieces an old barrel, or split up a pine board for kindling-stuff; in summer, to dig the few yards of garden ground appertaining to a low-rented tenement, and share the produce of his labor at the halves; in winter, to shovel away the snow from the sidewalk, or open paths to the woodshed, or along the clothes-line; such were some of the essential offices which Uncle Venner performed among at least a score of families. Within that circle, he claimed the same sort of privilege, and probably felt as much warmth of interest, as a clergyman does in the range of his parishioners. Not that he laid claim to the tithe pig; but, as an analogous mode of reverence, he went his rounds, every morning, to gather up the crumbs of the table and overflowings of the dinner-pot, as food for a pig of his own. Sonó la campanilla como desde un lugar remoto, tan hondo había descendido Hepzibah en sus sepulcrales recuerdos. Al entrar en la tienda halló en ella a un viejo, humilde habitante de la calle Pyncheon, al cual durante años se le permitía considerarse como una especie de familiar de la casa. Era un personaje inmemorial, que parecía haber tenido siempre el pelo canoso y la piel arrugada y jamás haber poseído más que un solo diente, en medio de la mandíbula superior. A pesar de sus años, Hepzibah no lograba recordar ni un día en que el tío Venner -como le llamaban- no hubiese ido arriba y abajo de la calle arastrando pesadamente los pies y deteniéndose de trecho en trecho. Todavía había algo vigoroso en él, algo que no sólo le hacía respirar con sosiego, sino que le permitía ocupar un sitio que de otro modo hubiera quedado vacante en este atestado mundo. Hacía recados con un paso tan lento que se diría que no iba a llegar nunca; convertía en astillas un barril y partía las tablas carcomidas; en verano cavaba los huertos de los propietarios de poca monta y partía con ellos el producto; en invierno abría senderos en la nieve y tensaba las cuerdas de tender la ropa. Esos eran algunos de los oficios esenciales que desempeñaba el tío Venner entre la veintena de familias de la calle Pyncheon. En este círculo reclamaba los mismos privilegios que detenta un pastor entre sus feligreses, y era acogido con tanto interés como pudiera serlo aquél. No reclamaba el diezmo, pero con igual solemnidad que si lo hubiera hecho, cada mañana recogía las sobras de la mesa, con las cuales alimentaba a un cerdo de su propiedad.
In his younger days--for, after all, there was a dim tradition that he had been, not young, but younger--Uncle Venner was commonly regarded as rather deficient, than otherwise, in his wits. In truth he had virtually pleaded guilty to the charge, by scarcely aiming at such success as other men seek, and by taking only that humble and modest part in the intercourse of life which belongs to the alleged deficiency. But now, in his extreme old age,--whether it were that his long and hard experience had actually brightened him, or that his decaying judgment rendered him less capable of fairly measuring himself,--the venerable man made pretensions to no little wisdom, and really enjoyed the credit of it. There was likewise, at times, a vein of something like poetry in him; it was the moss or wall-flower of his mind in its small dilapidation, and gave a charm to what might have been vulgar and commonplace in his earlier and middle life. Hepzibah had a regard for him, because his name was ancient in the town and had formerly been respectable. It was a still better reason for awarding him a species of familiar reverence that Uncle Venner was himself the most ancient existence, whether of man or thing, in Pyncheon Street, except the House of the Seven Gables, and perhaps the elm that overshadowed it. Cuando era más joven -pues existía una confusa tradición de que había sido no joven, pero menos viejo- el tío Venner era considerado como de ingenio deficiente. La verdad es que se confesó culpable de ello al no proponerse hallar lo que buscan los demás hombres y aceptando el humilde y modesto papel que en la vida suele reservarse a los deficientes mentales. Pero ahora, en plena ancianidad, ya porque la larga experiencia le hubiera iluminado el espíritu, ya porque su decadente juicio le hiciera menos capaz de valorarse, el viejo tenía la pretensión de pasar por muy prudente, y realmente lo conseguía. En otros tiempos, hubo en él algo parecido a una vena de poesía, como el musgo o el alhelí en la piedra, que hizo menos vulgares sus años de madurez. Hepzibah le respetaba porque su nombre era de abolengo en la ciudad y fue antiguamente respetable. Además, existía otra razón de más peso: el tío Venner era lo más viejo -cosa o ser- de toda la calle Pyncheon, excepto La Casa de los Siete Tejados y, quizá, el olmo que le daba sombra.
This patriarch now presented himself before Hepzibah, clad in an old blue coat, which had a fashionable air, and must have accrued to him from the cast-off wardrobe of some dashing clerk. As for his trousers, they were of tow-cloth, very short in the legs, and bagging down strangely in the rear, but yet having a suitableness to his figure which his other garment entirely lacked. His hat had relation to no other part of his dress, and but very little to the head that wore it. Thus Uncle Venner was a miscellaneous old gentleman, partly himself, but, in good measure, somebody else; patched together, too, of different epochs; an epitome of times and fashions. Este patriarca se hallaba ahora frente a Hepzibah, con una chaqueta azul de aspecto moderno, desecho del guadarropa de algún empleado. Sus pantalones eran de tejido de estopa, de perneras cortas y muy abolsados en el trasero; a pesar de eso, se adaptaba más a su figura que la otra prenda. El sombrero no guardaba relación con el resto del traje ni con la propia cabeza que cubría. Así es que el tío Venner resultaba un tipo misceláneo de viejo caballero y de otra persona cualquiera, un epítome, en resumen, de tiempos y modas.
"So, you have really begun trade," said he,--"really begun trade ! Well, I′m glad to see it. Young people should never live idle in the world, nor old ones neither, unless when the rheumatize gets hold of them. It has given me warning already; and in two or three years longer, I shall think of putting aside business and retiring to my farm. That′s yonder,--the great brick house, you know,--the workhouse, most folks call it; but I mean to do my work first, and go there to be idle and enjoy myself. And I′m glad to see you beginning to do your work, Miss Hepzibah !" -¡Vaya, veo que se ha decidido usted ! -dijo-. Me alegro, me alegro. Los jóvenes no han de vivir ociosos y los viejos tampoco, excepto cuando están reumáticos. A mí ya me ha avisado varias veces este maldito reuma. Dentro de un par de años dejaré los negocios y me retiraré a mi granja... Allí ¿sabe usted ? aquella casa de ladrillos rojos y que la gente llama asilo... Pero antes quiero acabar mi trabajo y luego disfrutaré de la ociosidad. Me alegro ver que usted comienza a hacer su trabajo, miss Hepzibah.
"Thank you, Uncle Venner" said Hepzibah, smiling; for she always felt kindly towards the simple and talkative old man. Had he been an old woman, she might probably have repelled the freedom, which she now took in good part. "It is time for me to begin work, indeed ! Or, to speak the truth, I have just begun when I ought to be giving it up." -Gracias, tío Venner -sonrió la vieja dama, que siempre se sentía bien dispuesta para con el simple y parlanchín viejo. Si en vez de ser un anciano hubiera sido una vieja, probablemente habría rechazado aquella libertad con que le hablaba y que ella permitía benévola-. Ya era hora de que empezara a trabajar. Mejor dicho, he comenzado precisamente cuando debía acabar.
"Oh, never say that, Miss Hepzibah !" answered the old man. "You are a young woman yet. Why, I hardly thought myself younger than I am now, it seems so little while ago since I used to see you playing about the door of the old house, quite a small child ! Oftener, though, you used to be sitting at the threshold, and looking gravely into the street; for you had always a grave kind of way with you,--a grown-up air, when you were only the height of my knee. It seems as if I saw you now; and your grandfather with his red cloak, and his white wig, and his cocked hat, and his cane, coming out of the house, and stepping so grandly up the street ! Those old gentlemen that grew up before the Revolution used to put on grand airs. In my young days, the great man of the town was commonly called King; and his wife, not Queen to be sure, but Lady. Nowadays, a man would not dare to be called King; and if he feels himself a little above common folks, he only stoops so much the lower to them. I met your cousin, the Judge, ten minutes ago; and, in my old tow-cloth trousers, as you see, the Judge raised his hat to me, I do believe ! At any rate, the Judge bowed and smiled !" -No diga eso miss Hepzibah -contestó el hombre-. Todavía es usted joven. No era yo mucho más viejo cuando la veía jugar a la puerta de esta casa. Muchas veces se quedaba usted sentada en el umbral, mirando gravemente a la calle... Porque usted siempre ha tenido una especie de gravedad, un aire de persona mayor, incluso cuando apenas me llegaba a la rodilla. Me parece que la estoy viendo... y a su abuelo también, con la chaqueta encarnada y la peluca blanca, y el sombrero de alas anchas, y el bastón, saliendo de la casa y pisando gravemente esas piedras de la calle... Hace diez minutos encontré a su primo, eljuez, y a pesar de mis pantalones de estopa, se quitó el sombrero y me saludó sonriendo...
"Yes," said Hepzibah, with something bitter stealing unawares into her tone; "my cousin Jaffrey is thought to have a very pleasant smile !" -Sí -replicó Hepzibah, y en su voz se deslizó cierta acidez-, mi primo Jaffrey tiene una sonrisa muy agradable.
"And so he has" replied Uncle Venner. "And that′s rather remarkable in a Pyncheon; for, begging your pardon, Miss Hepzibah, they never had the name of being an easy and agreeable set of folks. There was no getting close to them. But Now, Miss Hepzibah, if an old man may be bold to ask, why don′t Judge Pyncheon, with his great means, step forward, and tell his cousin to shut up her little shop at once ? It′s for your credit to be doing something, but it′s not for the Judge′s credit to let you !" -Bien puede usted decirio -aseguró el tío Venner-. Eso es notable en un Pyncheon, pues, con perdón sea dicho, nunca han tenido fama de ser gente tratable. Y dígame, miss Hepzibah, si no es demasiado atrevimiento el preguntarlo... ¿Por qué el juez Pyncheon, tan rico, no ha entrado a decirle a su prima que cerrara la tienda inmediatamente ? El trabajar honra a usted, pero el dejarla que trabaje no honra al juez.
"We won′t talk of this, if you please, Uncle Venner," said Hepzibah coldly. "I ought to say, however, that, if I choose to earn bread for myself, it is not Judge Pyncheon′s fault. Neither will he deserve the blame," added she more kindly, remembering Uncle Venner′s privileges of age and humble familiarity, "if I should, by and by, find it convenient to retire with you to your farm." -Es mejor que no hablemos de eso, tío Venner -contestó fríamente Hepzibali-. He de decir, sin embargo, que si he decidido ganarme la vida no es por culpa del juez Pyncheon. No merecería que se le criticara -agregó con tono más benévolo, recordando los privilegios de la vejez y la humilde familiaridad del viejo-, si algún día considero conveniente retirarme con usted a su granja...
"And it′s no bad place, either, that farm of mine !" cried the old man cheerily, as if there were something positively delightful in the prospect. "No bad place is the great brick farm-house, especially for them that will find a good many old cronies there, as will be my case. I quite long to be among them, sometimes, of the winter evenings; for it is but dull business for a lonesome elderly man, like me, to be nodding, by the hour together, with no company but his air-tight stove. Summer or winter, there′s a great deal to be said in favor of my farm ! And, take it in the autumn, what can be pleasanter than to spend a whole day on the sunny side of a barn or a wood-pile, chatting with somebody as old as one′s self; or, perhaps, idling away the time with a natural-born simpleton, who knows how to be idle, because even our busy Yankees never have found out how to put him to any use ? Upon my word, Miss Hepzibah, I doubt whether I′ve ever been so comfortable as I mean to be at my farm, which most folks call the workhouse. But you,--you′re a young woman yet,--you never need go there ! Something still better will turn up for you. I′m sure of it !" -No es un sitio muy malo, no crea usted -exclamó con alegría el anciano, como si hubiera algo positivamente deleitoso en aquella perspectiva-. La granja de ladrillos rojos no es un mal sitio, especialmente para los que, como yo, encontrarán allí muchos amigos, pues no es muy alegre para un viejo pasar las horas solo, cabeceando sin otra compañía que su estufa. Se puede decir mucho en favor de mi granja, tanto en verano como en invierno. Y si tomamos el otoño, ¿qué hay más delicioso que pasar el día entero sentado al sol, junto a un pajar, charlando con alguien tan viejo como uno mismo, o dejando transcurrir ociosamente el tiempo en compañía de un tonto de nacimiento, que sabe haraganear porque ni siquiera nuestros activos yanquis han encontrado para qué puede servir ? Le aseguro que jamás he estado tan bien como pienso estar en mi granja, que mucha gente llama asilo. Pero usted... Usted aún es joven y nunca necesitará ir allí... Estoy seguro de que se le presentará una solución mejor todavía...
Hepzibah fancied that there was something peculiar in her venerable friend′s look and tone; insomuch, that she gazed into his face with considerable earnestness, endeavoring to discover what secret meaning, if any, might be lurking there. Individuals whose affairs have reached an utterly desperate crisis almost invariably keep themselves alive with hopes, so much the more airily magnificent as they have the less of solid matter within their grasp whereof to mould any judicious and moderate expectation of good. Thus, all the while Hepzibah was perfecting the scheme of her little shop, she had cherished an unacknowledged idea that some harlequin trick of fortune would intervene in her favor. For example, an uncle--who had sailed for India fifty years before, and never been heard of since--might yet return, and adopt her to be the comfort of his very extreme and decrepit age, and adorn her with pearls, diamonds, and Oriental shawls and turbans, and make her the ultimate heiress of his unreckonable riches. Or the member of Parliament, now at the head of the English branch of the family,--with which the elder stock, on this side of the Atlantic, had held little or no intercourse for the last two centuries,--this eminent gentleman might invite Hepzibah to quit the ruinous House of the Seven Gables, and come over to dwell with her kindred at Pyncheon Hall. But, for reasons the most imperative, she could not yield to his request. It was more probable, therefore, that the descendants of a Pyncheon who had emigrated to Virginia, in some past generation, and became a great planter there,--hearing of Hepzibah′s destitution, and impelled by the splendid generosity of character with which their Virginian mixture must have enriched the New England blood,--would send her a remittance of a thousand dollars, with a hint of repeating the favor annually. Or,--and, surely, anything so undeniably just could not be beyond the limits of reasonable anticipation,--the great claim to the heritage of Waldo County might finally be decided in favor of the Pyncheons; so that, instead of keeping a cent-shop, Hepzibah would build a palace, and look down from its highest tower on hill, dale, forest, field, and town, as her own share of the ancestral territory. Hepzibah intentó escudriñar en el rostro del viejo qué secreto sentido podrían tener aquellas palabras. Los individuos cuyos asuntos han llegado a una situación desesperada se alimentan invariablemente de esperanzas, tanto más magníficas, cuanto menos materia sólida tienen en sus manos para moldear una juiciosa perspectiva. Así, mientras Hepzibah iba perfilando su plan comercial, acarició la idea de que la suerte intervendría en su favor. Por ejemplo, aquel tío que partió para la India cincuenta años antes, y del cual nada se había sabido desde entonces, podía regresar y adoptarla para cuidarle en sus últimos años, engalanándola con perlas, diamantes y chales de Oriente y dejándola finalmente heredera de incontables riquezas. O bien el diputado, jefe de la rama inglesa de la familia, con la cual apenas había tenido contacto, en los dos últimos siglos, la rama de ultramar, podía invitarla a abandonar la ruinosa casa de los Siete Tejados e irse a vivir con sus parientes en Pyncheon Hall. Aunque por razones ineludibles, ella no aceptaría. Era más probable aún que el descendiente de un Pyncheon, establecido en Virginia en pretéritas generaciones, enterado de la situación de Hepzibah e impulsado por la generosidad que la sangre de Virginia habría añadido a la sangre de Nueva Inglaterra, la enviara un millar de dólares con la promesa de repetir anualmente el obsequio. O bien -y no hay duda que algo tan justo caía dentro de los límites de lo probable-, o bien la gran reclamación de la herencia del condado de Waldo sería finalmente atendida, de modo que en vez de administrar una tienda de tres al cuarto, se haría construir un palacio y contemplaría desde lo más alto de una torre las cañadas, colinas, bosques, campos y ciudades que formaban parte del territorio ancestral.
These were some of the fantasies which she had long dreamed about; and, aided by these, Uncle Venner′s casual attempt at encouragement kindled a strange festal glory in the poor, bare, melancholy chambers of her brain, as if that inner world were suddenly lighted up with gas. But either he knew nothing of her castles in the air,--as how should he ?--or else her earnest scowl disturbed his recollection, as it might a more courageous man′s. Instead of pursuing any weightier topic, Uncle Venner was pleased to favor Hepzibah with some sage counsel in her shop-keeping capacity. Esas eran algunas de las fantasías con las cuales había soñado largamente. Ayudada por ellas, el casual intento del tío Venner para animarla encendió una extraña y solemne hoguera de gloria en el espíritu melancólico de la solterona, como si su mundo interior se viera súbitamente iluminado. Pero, sea porque él no supiera nada de esos castillos en el aire -¿cómo iba a adivinarlos ?- o porque el grave ceño de Hepzibah le turbase, el tío Venner, en vez de seguir alentándola, comenzó a darle prudentes consejos sobre la manera de regentar una tienda.
"Give no credit !"--these were some of his golden maxims,--"Never take paper-money. Look well to your change ! Ring the silver on the four-pound weight ! Shove back all English half-pence and base copper tokens, such as are very plenty about town ! At your leisure hours, knit children′s woollen socks and mittens ! Brew your own yeast, and make your own ginger-beer !" -No dé crédito a nadie -fue la primera de sus máximas-. No acepte billetes de banco. Fíjese bien cuando dé la vuelta. Haga saltar la moneda de plata en la pesa de cuatro libras. Despréndase de los medios peniques ingleses y de las piezas de cobre que tanto abundan en la ciudad. En las horas de asueto haga medias de lana para los chiquillos. Prepare usted misma la levadura y el licor de jengibre.
And while Hepzibah was doing her utmost to digest the hard little pellets of his already uttered wisdom, he gave vent to his final, and what he declared to be his all-important advice, as follows:-- Mientras Hepzibah se esforzaba en digerir aquella pildora de prudencia, el viejo dio rienda suelta a lo que aseguró que era un último y más importante consejo:
"Put on a bright face for your customers, and smile pleasantly as you hand them what they ask for ! A stale article, if you dip it in a good, warm, sunny smile, will go off better than a fresh one that you′ve scowled upon." -Ponga buena cara a los clientes y sonría al darles los géneros. Un artículo viejo, si se entrega con sonrisa amable, parecerá mejor que uno bueno entregado con el ceño fruncido.
To this last apothegm poor Hepzibah responded with a sigh so deep and heavy that it almost rustled Uncle Venner quite away, like a withered leaf,--as he was,--before an autumnal gale. Recovering himself, however, he bent forward, and, with a good deal of feeling in his ancient visage, beckoned her nearer to him. La pobre Hepzibah contestó a este último apotegma con un hondo suspiro que casi arrastró al tío Venner como si fuera una hoja seca llevada por un ventarrón otoñal. Recobróse el viejo, no obstante, y preguntó valerosamente, acercándose a la solterona:
"When do you expect him home ?" whispered he. -¿Para cuándo le espera usted ?
"Whom do you mean ?" asked Hepzibah, turning pale. -¿Qué quiere decir ? -respondió ella palideciendo.
"Ah !--You don′t love to talk about it," said Uncle Venner. "Well, well ! we′ll say no more, though there′s word of it all over town. I remember him, Miss Hepzibah, before he could run alone !" -¡Oh ! ¿No quiere hablar de ello ? Ni una palabra más, aunque en toda la ciudad no se habla de otra cosa. Le recuerdo, miss Hepzibah; le recuerdo de cuando aún no sabía andar.
During the remainder of the day, poor Hepzibah acquitted herself even less creditably, as a shop-keeper, than in her earlier efforts. She appeared to be walking in a dream; or, more truly, the vivid life and reality assumed by her emotions made all outward occurrences unsubstantial, like the teasing phantasms of a half-conscious slumber. She still responded, mechanically, to the frequent summons of the shop-bell, and, at the demand of her customers, went prying with vague eyes about the shop, proffering them one article after another, and thrusting aside--perversely, as most of them supposed--the identical thing they asked for. There is sad confusion, indeed, when the spirit thus flits away into the past, or into the more awful future, or, in any manner, steps across the spaceless boundary betwixt its own region and the actual world; where the body remains to guide itself as best it may, with little more than the mechanism of animal life. It is like death, without death′s quiet privilege,--its freedom from mortal care. Worst of all, when the actual duties are comprised in such petty details as now vexed the brooding soul of the old gentlewoman. As the animosity of fate would have it, there was a great influx of custom in the course of the afternoon. Hepzibah blundered to and fro about her small place of business, committing the most unheard-of errors: now stringing up twelve, and now seven, tallow-candles, instead of ten to the pound; selling ginger for Scotch snuff, pins for needles, and needles for pins; misreckoning her change, sometimes to the public detriment, and much oftener to her own; and thus she went on, doing her utmost to bring chaos back again, until, at the close of the day′s labor, to her inexplicable astonishment, she found the money-drawer almost destitute of coin. After all her painful traffic, the whole proceeds were perhaps half a dozen coppers, and a questionable ninepence which ultimately proved to be copper likewise. Durante el resto del día, la pobre Hepzibah desempeñó sus funciones de tendera con menos éxito todavía que durante la mañana. Parecía que anduviera en sueños; mejor dicho, la vivida realidad de sus emociones hacía insustanciales los sucesos extemos, que eran para ella como los importunos fantasmas de una pesadilla. Contestaba maquinalmente a las llamadas de la campanilla y a las peticiones de los clientes, excusándose por lo que no tenía, dando un artículo por otro y retirando perversamente -suponían algunos- lo que le pedían. Siempre se produce una triste confusión, cuando el espíritu se desliza hacia el pasado o hacia el temible futuro, o cruza el límite que le separa del mundo real, concreto, donde el cuerpo queda para guiarse por sí mismo, tan sólo con su vida animal. Es como la muerte, sirl la tranquilidad que es privilegio de la muerte, sin la libertad de los cuidados materiales. Y resulta aún peor cuando éstos se reducen a detalles tan insignificantes como los que vejaban el espíritu de la anciana señora. Como si el hado le fuera adverso, el ir y venir de parroquianos fue constante durante toda la tarde, Hepzibah cometió los errores más absurdos: a veces daba doce y a veces siete velas de sebo de las diez en libra; entregaba agujas por alfileres y alfileres por agujas y jengibre por rapé; se equivocaba en el cambio, en perjuicio del público y con mayor frecuencia en el suyo. Así pasó el día armándose un lío, introduciendo el caos en el negocio y, al final, con gran sorpresa, halló que el cajón del dinero estaba casi vacío. Después de tanto esforzarse, no había recaudado más de media docena de monedas de cobre y una de plata de nueve peniques, que luego resultó también ser de cobre.
At this price, or at whatever price, she rejoiced that the day had reached its end. Never before had she had such a sense of the intolerable length of time that creeps between dawn and sunset, and of the miserable irksomeness of having aught to do, and of the better wisdom that it would be to lie down at once, in sullen resignation, and let life, and its toils and vexations, trample over one′s prostrate body as they may ! Hepzibah′s final operation was with the little devourer of Jim Crow and the elephant, who now proposed to eat a camel. In her bewilderment, she offered him first a wooden dragoon, and next a handful of marbles; neither of which being adapted to his else omnivorous appetite, she hastily held out her whole remaining stock of natural history in gingerbread, and huddled the small customer out of the shop. She then muffled the bell in an unfinished stocking, and put up the oaken bar across the door. Exhaló un suspiro de alivio al llegar al final del día. Jamás, hasta entonces, había sentido la intolerable lentitud del tiempo que se arrastra desde el alba al crepúsculo y el infernal tormento de verse obligada a hacer algo cuando se cree que lo más sensato sería yacer, sumirse en triste resignación y dejar que la vida y sus vejaciones pisoteen a uno. La última operación comercial del día se realizó con el pequeño devorador de Jim Crow, que ahora se proponía engullir un camello entero. En su turbación, Hepzibah le ofreció primero un dragón de madera, luego un puñado de canicas de cristal, pero como nada de esto servía para saciar aquel devorador apetito, sacó las figuras de pan de jengibre que le quedaban y se las entregó al muchacho, echándole luego de la tienda. Amordazó la campana con una media a medio acabar y atrancó la puerta.
During the latter process, an omnibus came to a stand-still under the branches of the elm-tree. Hepzibah′s heart was in her mouth. Remote and dusky, and with no sunshine on all the intervening space, was that region of the Past whence her only guest might be expected to arrive ! Was she to meet him now ? Un ómnibus se detuvo en la parada, junto al olmo. A Hepzibah, el corazón le dio un salto. Remota y polvorienta, sin un rayo de sol en el espacio intermedio, estaba, en el fondo de su espíritu, aquella región del pasado a la cual su único huésped podía llegar de un momento a otro. ¿Sería ahora ?
Somebody, at all events, was passing from the farthest interior of the omnibus towards its entrance. A gentleman alighted; but it was only to offer his hand to a young girl whose slender figure, nowise needing such assistance, now lightly descended the steps, and made an airy little jump from the final one to the sidewalk. She rewarded her cavalier with a smile, the cheery glow of which was seen reflected on his own face as he reentered the vehicle. The girl then turned towards the House of the Seven Gables, to the door of which, meanwhile,--not the shop-door, but the antique portal,--the omnibus-man had carried a light trunk and a bandbox. First giving a sharp rap of the old iron knocker, he left his passenger and her luggage at the door-step, and departed. Alguien se dirigía desde el ómnibus hasta la puerta. Hepzibah vio que era un caballero. Pero sólo se había apeado para ofrecer su mano a una muchacha cuya ligera figura, sin precisar de aquella ayuda, saltó airosamente del estribo. Gratificó al caballero con una sonrisa, cuyo alegre reflejo brillaba aún en el rostro del hombre cuando éste volvió a subir al vehículo. La muchacha enfrentóse entonces con La Casa de los Siete Tejados, en cuya puerta -no la de la tienda, sino en la principal- el cochero del ómnibus había depositado un baúl y una caja de cartón. Después de dar un fuerte aldabonazo, el conductor se fue sin saludar.
"Who can it be ?" thought Hepzibah, who had been screwing her visual organs into the acutest focus of which they were capable. "The girl must have mistaken the house." She stole softly into the hall, and, herself invisible, gazed through the dusty side-lights of the portal at the young, blooming, and very cheerful face which presented itself for admittance into the gloomy old mansion. It was a face to which almost any door would have opened of its own accord. « ¿Quién será ? -pensó Hepzibah, frunciendo las cejas-. Se habrá equivocado. » Observó por una mirilla el joven y alegre semblante de la muchacha. Era un rostro ante el cual casi todas las puertas se abrirían de buen grado.
The young girl, so fresh, so unconventional, and yet so orderly and obedient to common rules, as you at once recognized her to be, was widely in contrast, at that moment, with everything about her. The sordid and ugly luxuriance of gigantic weeds that grew in the angle of the house, and the heavy projection that overshadowed her, and the time-worn framework of the door,--none of these things belonged to her sphere. But, even as a ray of sunshine, fall into what dismal place it may, instantaneously creates for itself a propriety in being there, so did it seem altogether fit that the girl should be standing at the threshold. It was no less evidently proper that the door should swing open to admit her. The maiden lady herself, sternly inhospitable in her first purposes, soon began to feel that the door ought to be shoved back, and the rusty key be turned in the reluctant lock. La muchacha, alegre y risueña, presentaba sorprendente contraste con todo lo que en aquel momento la rodeaba. Los exuberantes hierbajos que crecían en los ángulos de la casa, la sombra que arrojaban los pisos superiores, las resquebrajadas tablas de la puerta... Nada de eso pertenecía a la esfera vital de la muchacha. Pero al igual que hubiera ocurrido si un rayo de sol fuera a dar en aquel sórdido rincón, haciendo instantáneamente que todo fuera apropiado, cualquiera diría que era natural que la chica se hallara allí. Y no parecía menos evidente que la puerta había de abrirse para admitirla. La solterona, cuyos primeros propósitos fueron ásperamente inhóspitos, dióse cuenta de que era menester dar vuelta a la mohosa llave.
"Can it be Phoebe ?" questioned she within herself. "It must be little Phoebe; for it can be nobody else,--and there is a look of her father about her, too ! But what does she want here ? And how like a country cousin, to come down upon a poor body in this way, without so much as a day′s notice, or asking whether she would be welcome ! Well; she must have a night′s lodging, I suppose; and to-morrow the child shall go back to her mother." « ¿Será Phoebe, quizá ? -preguntóse-. Debe ser la pequeñá Phoebe... Porque no puede ser nadie más... Sí, y se parece a su padre... ¿Qué diablos querrá ? ¡Qué propio es de una prima del campo eso de enviar a la criatura así, sin avisar ni preguntar si será bien venida !... Bueno, supongo que esta noche tendré que darle alojamiento, y mañana se la devolveré a su madre. »
Phoebe, it must be understood, was that one little offshoot of the Pyncheon race to whom we have already referred, as a native of a rural part of New England, where the old fashions and feelings of relationship are still partially kept up. In her own circle, it was regarded as by no means improper for kinsfolk to visit one another without invitation, or preliminary and ceremonious warning. Yet, in consideration of Miss Hepzibah′s recluse way of life, a letter had actually been written and despatched, conveying information of Phoebe′s projected visit. This epistle, for three or four days past, had been in the pocket of the penny-postman, who, happening to have no other business in Pyncheon Street, had not yet made it convenient to call at the House of the Seven Gables. Se habrá adivinado que Phoebe era aquel vastago de la estirpe de los Pyncheon que vivían en la parte rural de Nueva Inglaterra, donde aún se conservan los sentimientos de antaño y las viejas costumbres. No se consideraba impropio que un pariente visitara a otro sin que le invitaran o sin previos y ceremoniosos avisos. No obstante, en consideración a la retirada vida de Hepzibah, le habían escrito anunciando la proyectada visita de Phoebe. Esta epístola pasó tres o cuatro días en el bolsillo del cartero, que, como no tenía ninguna otra para la calle de Pyncheon, no consideró conveniente llegarse a entregarla a La Casa de los Siete Tejados.
"No--she can stay only one night," said Hepzibah, unbolting the door. "If Clifford were to find her here, it might disturb him !" -¡No ! -murmuró Hepzibah, descorriendo el cerrojo de la puerta-. No puede permanecer en casa más que una noche. Si Clifford la encontrase aquí, podría molestarle...