Excerpt from Chapter 13, "Alice Pyncheon," that describes Alice's initial
entrance into the room where her father Gervayse and the carpenter Maule
await her and that details her powerful personality
As Alice came into the room, her eyes fell upon the carpenter,
who was standing near its centre, clad in a green woollen jacket, a pair
of loose breeches, open at the knees, and with a long pocket for his rule,
the end of which protruded; it was as proper a mark of the artisan's calling,
as Mr. Pyncheon's full-dress sword of that gentleman's aristocratic pretensions.
A glow of artistic approval brightened over Alice Pyncheon's face; she
was struck with admiration--which she made no attempt to conceal--of the
remarkable comeliness, strength, and energy of Maule's figure. But that
admiring glance (which most other men, perhaps, would have cherished as
a sweet recollection, all through life) the carpenter never forgave. It
must have been the devil himself that made Maule so subtile in his perception.
(Chapter 13)
