📔 The House of the Seven Gables

He smiled to himself, and threw a glance of fine sarcastic meaning towards Hepzibah.

Either it was one of those upquivering flashes of the spirit, to which minds in an abnormal state are liable, or else the artist had subtly touched some chord that made musical vibration.

He made a salutation, or, to speak nearer the truth, an ill-defined, abortive attempt at curtsy.

Again and again, however, and half a dozen other agains, with the inexorable pertinacity of a child intent upon some object important to itself, did he renew his efforts for admittance.