San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-06-14
THE SCARLET LETTER.
Dy NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.

49, 49,
our an open triumph over the evil WITHIN
thee and the sorrow without. Take hees
how thou deniest TO him-who perchanc,
hath moi the courage to grasp it for him
self-the bitter but wholesome cup tina
is now presented to thy lips!'
The young pastors voice was trem
ulously sweet, rich, deep and broken
The feeling hat it so evidently mani
tested, rather than the direct purport Of
the words, caused it to vibrate withiI
all hearts, and brought the listeners
into one accord of sympathy. Even the
poor baby at Hester's bosom was af'
fected by the same influence, for il
directed its hitherto vacant gaze toward
Mr.. Dimmesdale and held up its little
arms with a half pleased, half plaintive
murmur. So powerful seemed the min
ister's appeal that the people could not
believe but that Hester Prynne would
speak out the gnilty name, or else that
the guilty one himself, in whatever
high or lowly place he stood, would be
drawn forth by an inward and inevita-
BILE necessity, and compelled to ascend
the scaffold.
Hester shook her head.
woman, transgress not beyond the
limits of heavens mercyr' cried the Rev
erend Mr.. Wilson more harshly than be-
fore. THAT little babe hath been gifted
with a voice to second and confirm the
counsel which thou hast heard. Speak
- Al .o,ot Tibet onl INV rnnan+an, a
may avail to take the scarlet letter off
thy breast"
"Never!" replied Hester Prynne, look
ing not at Mr.. Wilson, but into the deep
and troubled eyes of the younger clergy
man. 1T is too deeply branded. Ye
cannot take it off. And would that |
might endure his agony as well as mine!"
''Speak, woman!' said another voice
coldly and sternly, proceeding from the
crowd about the scatfold. Speak, and
give your child a father!"
81 will not speak, answered Hester,
turning pale as death, but responding to
this voice, which she too surely recog.
nized. "And my child must seek a heav-
emily father; she shall never know an
earthly one!"
"She will not speak," murmured Mr..
Dimmesdale. who, leaning over the bal
cony with his hand upon his heart, had
awaited the result of his appeal. He
now drew back with a long respiration.
"Wondrous strength and generosity of
woman's hearth She will not speak,"
Discerning the impracticable state OF
the poor ~culprit's mind the elder clergy
man, who had carefully prepared himself
for the occasion, addressed to the multi
tude a discourse on sin in all its branches,
but with continual reference to the igno-
minious letter. So forcibly did he dwell
upon this symbol for the hour or more
during which his periods were rolling
over the peoples heads that it assumed
new ~terrors in their imagination. and
seemed to derive its scarlet hue from the
flames of the Internal pit.
Hester Prynne, meanwhile, kept her
place upon the pedestal of shame, with
glazed eyes and an air of weary indiffer-
ence. She had borne that morning all
that nature could endure, and as her
temperament was not of the order that
escapes from too intense suffering by a
swoon, her spirit could only shelter itself
beneath a stony crust Of insensibility,
while the faculties of animal life re-
manned entire. In this state the voice of
the preacher Numbered remorselessly.
but unavailingly, upon her ears. The
infant, during the latter portion of her
ordeal, pierced the air with its wailings
and screams; she strove to hush it, me
chanically, but seemed scarcely to SYM
pathize with its trouble, With the same
hard demeanor, she was led back to
prison, and vanished from the public
gaze within its iron clamped portal. 1t
was whispered by those who peered after
her that the scarlet letter threw a lurid
CLEAN along the dark passageway of the
interior.