Clifford, who becomes fatigued easily, is now in the habit of retiring early, which is fortunate for Phoebe, who thus has a good deal of time to herself. Interestingly, she is changing; her eyes are now larger, darker, and deeper, and she seems to be less girlish. In the summer house, she is occasionally thrown into the company of Holgrave, who tells her about his varied career as a schoolmaster, salesman, country editor, peddler, sailor, communal farmer, hypnotist, and now as a photographer. He has retained his good conscience always, but he seems to obey strange rules. He is calm, cool, and more intellectual than emotional. He asks Phoebe about Clifford and seems surprised that she does not wish to try fathoming the man's nature. Holgrave rants about the dead weight of the past, says that houses should last only twenty years, and he mentions Maule's curse, which he says is very real. He fancies himself to be quite a thinker, but one might well wonder whether he himself will ever amount to anything. He tells Phoebe that he is a published author, and he begins to read to her a story that he has written about Alice Pyncheon.
Holgrave's story relates that thirty-seven years after the house was built, the owner, Gervayse Pyncheon, grandson of the old Colonel, summoned the carpenter Matthew Maule, the only son of Thomas Maule, who built the Pyncheon mansion, to ask him about the missing documents, the deeds to "the lands eastward." Matthew took offense at Gervayse's European manners, and so, for revenge against the Pyncheons in general, he hypnotized the proud, beautiful, and pure Alice Pyncheon. Immediately thereafter, Alice described her vision of the old wizard Maule and his carpenter son as they tried to prevent blood-soaked old Colonel Pyncheon from releasing a parchment document to his heirs. Later, Alice, still a mesmerized "slave," kissed Matthew's bride, then caught cold, and died. Her sudden death wounded the carpenter's grandson; he gnashed his teeth — he had sought only to humble Alice, not destroy her.
