San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-06-30
THE SCARLET LETTER
By NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

aspiring ambition into its service. Ever
political power, as in the case of In.
crease Mathec, was within the grasp Of
q successful priest.
1t was the observation of those who
beheld him COW that never, since Mr.
Dimmesdale first set his foot on the New
England shore, had he exhibited such
energy as was seen in the gait and ali
with which he kept his pace in the pro
cession. There was no feebleness Of
step as at other times; his frame was not
bent, nor did his hand rest ominously
upon his heart. 4
Hester Prynne, gazing steadfastly al
the clergyman, felt a dreary influence
come over her, but wherefore or whence
she knew not. unless that he seemed SC
remote from her OWL sphere and utterly
beyond her reach. One glance of recog-
milton, she had imagined, must needs
pass between them. She thought of the
dim forest, with its little dell of solitude
and love and anguish, and the NOISY
tree trunk, where, sitting hand in hand
they had mingled their sad and passion.
ate talk with the melancholy murmul
of the brook. How deeply had they
known each other then! And was this
the man? She hardly knew him now
He, moving proudly past, enyeloped, as
it were, in the rich music, with the pro.
cession of majestic and venerable ia.
theirs; he, SO unattainable in his worldly
position, and still more so in that far
vista of his unsympathizing thoughts,
through which she now beheld him!
Her spirit sank with the idea that all
must have been a delusion, and that,
wildly as she had dreamed it, there
could be no real bond betwixt the cler.
gyman and herself. And thus much OF
woman was there in Hester that she
could scarcely forgive him-least of all
now, when the heavy footstep of their
approaching fate might be heard,
nearer, nearer, nearer-for being able SC
completely to withdraw himself from
their mutual world, while she CROPPED
darkly and stretched forth her cold
hands and found him not.
Pearl either saw and responded to her
mothers feelings, or herself felt the re-
moteness and intangibility that had fall
en- around the minister. While the pro-
cession passed the child was uneasy. fut.
tering up and down like a bird on the
point of taking fight. When the whole
had gone by she looked up into Hester's
face.
Mother" said she, 'was that the same
minister that kissed me by the brook"
"Hold thy peace, dear little Pearlr
whispered her mother. 1--WE must moi
always talk in the market place of what
happens to us in the forest"
Il could not be sure that it was he: SC
strange he looked" continued the child.
elise / would have run to him and bid
him kiss me now. before all the people
even as he did yonder among the dark
old trees. What would the minister
have said, mother? Would he have
clapped his hand over his heart and
scUwled on me and bid me be gomez"
what should he say, Pearlg' an
swered Hester, ''save that it was nc
time to kiss, and that kisses are not to
be given in the market place? Well fol-
thee, foolish child, that thou didst not
speak to him. =
By this time the preliminary prayer
had been offered in the meeting house,
and the accents of the Reverend Mr..
Dimmesdale were heard commencing
his discourse. An irresistible feeling
kept Hester near the spot. As the sa.
cred edifce was too much thronged to
admit another auditor, she took up he1
position close beside the scaffold of the
pillory. 1t was in sufficient proximity
to bring the whole sermon to her ears
in the shape of an indistinct but varied
murmur and flow of the minister's very
peculiar voice.
This vocal organ was in itself a rich
endowment, insomuch that a listener,
compromising nothing of the language
in which the preacher spoke, might still
have been swayed to and fro by the mere
tone and cadence. Like all other music,
it breathed passion and pathos and emo.
tions high or tender in a tongue native
W Ino human uedrI Wherever
Muffied as the sound was by its passage
through the church walls, Hester Prynne
listened with such intentness, and sym.
pathized so intimately, that the sermon
had throughout a meaning for her en-
tirely apart from its indistinguishable
words. These, perhaps, if more dis.
tinctly heard, might have been only a
grosser medium and have clogged the
spiritual sense. Now she caught the
low undertone, as of the wind sinking
down to repose itself; then assembled
with it, as it rose through progressive
gradations of sweetness and power, un.
til its volume seemed to envelop her
with an atmosphere of awe and solemn
grandeur. And yet, majestic as the