Excerpt from Chapter 5 that links Alice Pyncheon and her foreign education
to the harpsichord found in The House of the Seven Gables
. . . It was strewn about with a few old books, and a work-basket, and
a dusty writing-desk; and had, on one side, a large, black article of furniture,
of very strange appearance, which the old gentlewoman told Phoebe was a
harpsichord. It looked more like a coffin than anything else; and, indeed,--not
having been played upon, or opened, for years,--there must have been a
vast deal of dead music in it, stifled for want of air. Human finger was
hardly known to have touched its chords since the days of Alice Pyncheon,
who had learned the sweet accomplishment of melody in Europe. (Chapter
5)
