Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1892-04-23
CHAPTER ii.
THE RECOGNITION.

From this intense consciousness of
being the object of severe and universal
observation, the wearer Of the scarlet
letter was at length relieved by discern
ing on the outskirts of the crowd a fig
ure which irresistibly took possession Of
her thoughts. An Indian, in his native
garb, was standing there; but the red
men were not so infrequent visitors of
the English settlements that one of them
would have attracted any notice from
Hester Prynne at such time, much less
would he have excluded all other objects
and ideas from her mind. By the In
dams side and evidently sustaining a
cempanionship with him stood white
man, clad in a strange disarray Of CIV
ilized and savage costume.
He was small in stature, with fur
rowed visage, which as yet could hard
ly be termed aged. There was a re-
markable intelligence in his features, as
of person who had SO cultivated his
mental part that it could not fail to
mold the physical to itself, and become
manifest by unmistakable tokens. Al
though, by a seemingly careless ar
rangement of his heterogeneous garb,
he had endeavored to conceal or abate
the popularity, it was sufficiently evil
dent to Hester Prynne that one of this
mans shoulders rose higher than the
other. Again, at the first instant Of
perceiving that thin yisage, and the
sig htdeformity of the figure, she pressed
her infant to her bosom with so convul-
sive force that the poor babe uttered
another cry of pain. But the mother
did not seem to hear it.
At his arrival in the market place,
and some time before she saw him, the
stranger had bent his eyes ON Hester
Prynne. 1t was carelessly at first, like
man chiefly accustomed to look in
ward and to whom external matters are
of little value and import unless they
bear relation to something within his
mind. Very soon, however. his look
became keen and penetrating. A with
ing horror twisted itself across his fea-
lures, like snake gliding swiftly over
them and making one little pause, with
all its wreathed intervolutions in open
sight. His face darkened with some
powerful emotion, which nevertheless
he so instantaneously controlled by an
| effort of his will that save at a single
moment its expression might have
passed for calmness. After brief space
the CONFUSION grew almost impercepti-
BILE and finally subsidized into the depths
| of his nature. When he found the eyes
of Hester Prynne fastened on his own
and saw that she appeared to recognize
him, he slowly and calmly raised his fin
ger, made gesture with it in the air
and laid it on his lips.
Then, touching the shoulder of a
townsman who stood next TO him, be
| addressed him in formal and courteous
| manner.
II pray you, good sir, said he, who
is this woman-and wherefore is she
here set up to public shameg
'sYou must needs be stranger in this
region, friend answered the towns
man, looking curiously at the questioner
and his savage companion, ''else you
would surely have heard Of Mistress
Hester Prynne and her evil doings. She
| hath raised a great scandal. promise
you, In godly Master Dilnmesdale's
| church"
"You say truly, replied the other. a
am stranger and have been wanderer
sorely against my will have met with
grievous mishaps by sea and land, and
have been long held in bonds among the
/ heather folk to the southwark. and am
now brought hither by this indian to be
redeemed out of my captivity. Win il
| please you, therefore, to tell me of Hes
ter Prynne's--have | her name rightly
of this wo1nan's offenses and what has
brought her to yonder scaffoldT
'Truly, friend, and methinks it must
gladden. your heart, after your troubles
and sojourn in the wilderness" said the
townsman, ITO find yourself at length
in a land where iniquity is searched out
and punished IN the sight Of rulers and
people, as here in our godly New Eng