Evening journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1888-1932, 1892-09-09

Not the less, however, came this i'm
obtrusive sense of change.
The same was true as regarded the ac
quaintances whom he met, and all the
well known shapes Of human life about
the little town. They looked neither
older nor younger now; the boards Of
the aged were no whittier, nor could the
creeping babe Of yesterday walk on his
feet today; it was impossible to describe
in what respect they differed from the
individuals on whom he had so recently
bestowed parting glance; and yet the
minister's deepest sense seemed to in
form them of their mutability. A SINH
lar impression struck him most remark
ably, as he passed under the walls Of his
own church. The edifce had so very
strange and yet so familiar an aspect
that Mr.. Dimmesdale's mind vibruted
between two ideas-either that he had
seen it only in a dream hitherto, or that
he was merely dreaming about it now.
isphenomenon, in the various shapes
which it assumed, indicated no external
change, but so sudden and important a
change in the spectator of the familiar
scene that the intervening space Of q
single day had operated ON his conscious
ness like the lapse of years. The min
ister's own will, and Testers will, and
the fate that grew between them, had
wrought this transformation. 1t was
the same town as heretofore, but the
same minister returned not from the
forest He might have said 10 the friends
who greeted him: Il am not the man
for whom you take mel l left him yon-
der in the foreSt, withdrawn into a secret
dell by a NOISY tree trunk and near n
melancholy brook Go seek your min
lister and see if his emaciated figure, his
thin cheek, his white, heavy, pain wrin-
kled brow be not flung down there like
cast off garment His friends, no
doubt, would still havv insisted with
him, Thou art myself the mani" but
the error would have been their own,
not his.
Before Mr.. Dimmesdale reached home
his inner man gave him other evidences
of a revolution in the sphere of thought
and feeling. In truth, nothing short Of
total change of dynasty and moral
code in that interior kingdom was ade-
quate to account for the impulses now
communicated to the unfortunate and
startled minister. at every step he was
melted 10 do some strange, wild, wicked
thing or other, with a sense that it would
be at once involuntary and Intentional,
in spite of himself, yet growing out Of a
profounder self than that which opposed
the impulse.
He had by this time reached his
dwelling ON the edge of the burial
ground. and Fastening up the stairs
took refuge in his study. The minister
was glad to have reached tails shelter
without first betraying himself to the
world by any Of those strange and wicked
eccentricities to which he had been con
tinually impelled while passing through
the streets. He entered the accustomed
room and looked around him on H.
books, its windows, its fireplace and tn,
tapestried comfort Of tho walls with thu
same perception Of strangeness tina
had haunted him throughout his wall
from the forest dell into the town an(
thitherward. Here he had studied ani
written; here, gone through fast anC
vigil, and come forth half alive; here
striven to pray; here, borne a hundre'
thousand ngonies!
There was the Bible in its rich oil
Hebrew, with Moses and the prophet
speaking TO him, and Gods voice through
ALT There on the table, with the ink,
pen beside it, was an unfinished sermoi
with a sentence broken in the midst
where his thoughts had ceased 10 gusl
out upon the page two days before. II
knew that it was himself, the thin AM
white checked minister, who had don
and suffered these things and writtei
thus far into the election sermon. Blu
he seemed to stand apart and eye thi
former self with scornful, plying, bu
half envious, curiosity. That self wa
gone. Another man had returned on
of the forest. a wiser one, with a know
edge Of hidden mysteries which the sin
plicity of the former never could hav
reached. A bitter kind of lmowledg
thatl
While occupied with these reflection
the minister summoned a SCI
want of the house and requested fOoC
which being set before him he ate wit
! ravenous appetite. Then, finging tn
, already written pages Of the electio
sermon into the fire, he forthwith bega
/, another, which ho wrote with such a
impulsive flow Of thought and emotio
that he fancied himself inspired, an
/ only wondered that heaven should Sc
fit to transmit the grand and sclem
music Of its oracles through so foul a
p organ pipe as he. However, leavir
! that mystery to solve itself or 60 Vi
!. solved forever, no drove his task onwal
with earnest haste and ecstasy. Thu
! tho night fed away as if it were
winged steed and he careering on
|, morning came and peeped, bluslnn
through the curtains, and at last SUI
!, rise threw a golden beam into the stuC
\ and laid it right across the minister
\ bedazzled eyes. There he was, with Il
4 pen stin between his fingers, and a vas
= lyneasurable tract Of written space
a hind him.
!. CHAPTER XVI.
THE NEW ENGLAND HOLIDAY.
= Betimes in the morning of the day