Tawdry ending spoils potentially excellent Hawthorne story

Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Prophetic Pictures could have been a great story had H. not backed off in the end and opted for a cheap, melodramatic conclusion: the story (I'm reading his short stories in an old Vintage pb, Hawthorne's Short Stories, Arvin ed.) is about a young couple about to be married who go to a highly talented artist to paint their portraits; H describes the artist as almost godlike - with a vast amount of knowledge of art, nature, philosophy, language - and very peculiarly devoted to his work: he will only paint portraits of those in whom he sees a certain inner light, and will turn down expensive commissions if uninterested but will also paint portraits of children or others who cannot pay. He is immediately struck by the couple who come to see him and agrees to paint their portraits; when he finishes, they both look at the picture and are astonished to see that they each have a strange look. The wife, Elinor, is particularly disturbed; the artist says he could revise the portrait but she says to let it be - he also shows her a sketch he did of the two of them together, which astonishes her in some way. The couple hang the portraits in their new house, but eventually - they are so disturbing - they cover the portraits with drapery, allegedly to protect against light and dust. The artist goes off and spends some years in the "wilderness," painting nature scenes and portraits of Native Americans - at last he returns, goes to their house, and asks to see the portraits. They agree, pull back the drapery - and at this point it's obvious that the wife is depressed and the husband obsessed or mad in some way - and Hawthorne should have left it at that! The story would have at that point been weird and provocative: did the artist see something in their souls? Or did the portraits themselves change the lives of the subjects, in the way that sometimes "predictions" from seers can influence rather than foresee behavior? Instead, he has the man pull out a knife and try to stab his wife - and then he shows the sketch he'd made which "predicted" this murder. This tawdry ending pushes the story over the top; so much wish I could re-write it for him!