Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1892-06-04
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CHAPTER XII.
HESTER AND THE PHYSICAL


In her late singular interview with
Mr.. Dimmesdale, Hester Prynne was
shocked at the condition to which she
found the clergymen reduced. His
nerve seemed absolutely destroyed. His
moral force was abased into more than
childish weakness. 1t groveled help
less on the ground even while his intel
lectual faculties retained their pristine
strength, or had perhaps acquired a
morbid energy which disease only could
have given them. With her knowledge
of train of circumstances hidden from
all others she could readily infer that,
besides the legitimate action of his own
conscience, a terrible machinery had
been brought to bear and was still oper-
ating on Mr. Dimmesdales well being
and repose.
Knowing what this poor, fallen man
had once been, her whole soul was moved
by the shuddering terror with which he
had appealed to her-the outcast woman
for support against his instinctively
discovered enemy. She decided, more
over, that he had Il right to her utmost
aid. Little accustomed, in her long
seclusion from society, to measure her
ideas of right and wrong by any stand
ard external to herself Hester SAVIOR
seemed to see-that there lay response
bility upon her, in reference to the clergy
nan, which she owed to no other, nor to
the whole world besides. The links that
united her to the rest of human kind
links of flowers or silk or gold or what
ever the material-had all been broken.
Here was the iron link of mutual crime,
which neither he nor she could break.
Like all other ties, it brought along with
it its obligations
Now, however, her interview with
the Reverend Mr.. Dimmesdale, on the
night of his vigil, had given her new
theme Of reflection, and held up to her an
object that appeared worthy of any ex-
ertion and sacrifice for its attainment.
She had witnessed the intense misery
beneath which the minister struggled,
or, to speak more accurately, had ceased
to struggle. She saw that he stood on
the verge of lunacy, if he had not
already stepped across it. 1t was i'm
possible to doubt, that whatever pain
full efficacy there might be in the secret
sting of remorse, a deadlier venom had
been infused into it by the hand that
proffered relief. A secret enemy had
been continually by his side, under the
semblance Of friend and helper, and
had ayailed himself of the opportunities
thus afforded for tampering with the
delicate springs of Mr.. DiInmesdale's
nature.
Hester could not but ask herself
whether there had not originally been a
defect of truth, courage and loyalty on
her own part in allowing the minister
to be thrown into position where SO
much evil was to be foreboded and
nothing suspicious to be hoped. Her
only justification lay in the fact that she
had been able to discern no method of
| rescuing him from blacker ruin than
had overwhelmed herself, except by
acquiescing in Roger Chillingworth's
| scheme of disguise. Under that impulse
| she had made her choice, and had chosen,
as it now appeared, the more wretched
l alternative of the two. She determined
| to redeem her error SO far as it might
| yet be possible. Strengthened by years
of hard and solemn trial, she felt her
| self no longer so inadequate to cope
| with Roger Chillingworth as on that
| night, abased by sin and half maddened
1 by the ignominy that was still new,
1 when they had talked together IN the
| prison chamber. She had climbed her
way since then to higher point. The
old man, on the other hand, had brought
himself nearer to her level, or perhaps
below it, by the revenge which he had
stopped for.
In fine, Hester Prynne resolved tc
meet her former husband, and do what
might be ia her power for the rescue Of
the victim on whom he had so evidently
set his grippe. The occasion was not long
to seek. One afternoon, walking witt
Pearl in retired part of the peninsula
she beheld the old physician, with I
basket on one arm and staff in tht
other hand, stopping along the ground
/ in quest of roots and herbs to concocf
his medicines withal.
| Hester babe little Pearl run down t
the margin of the water and play witt
| the shells and tangled seaweed, unit
| she should have talked awhile with yon
| der gatherer of herbs. So the child flew
away like bird. and making bare he
| small white feet went pattering alon:
| the moist margin of the sea.
| Here and there she came to full
| stop, and peeped curiously into a poe
left by the retiring tide as mirror TO
Pearl TO see her face in. Forth peeps