How is an Ominous/Suspenseful mood conveyed in the story of "Rappaccini's Daughter"?

Hawthorne begins this story with a preamble about the French "author" of the tale - a man by the name of l'Aubepine. In French, aubepine is the name for a flowering shrub known in English as hawthorn. "Rappacini's Daughter" begins with a literary joke which calls attention to Hawthorne's role as storyteller, and continues with allusions to works such as The Divine Comedy and the Bible. Beatrice, the title character, is a reference to Dante's guide through Paradiso in The Divine Comedy; Giovanni's own relative is rumored to have been the inspiration for one of Dante's characters; Rappaccini's garden is referred to as the "Eden of the present world". Beatrice's undoing at the end of the story is precipitated by her loss of innocence; once she knows that she is poisonous, she chooses to die.