The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-03-24

| ] wilt thou stand her with mother and | me tomorrow at noontide?" Then a great light suddenly gleamed far and | wide over the muffled sky. It was
 ,doubtless but the ordinary phenome- non of . meteor, but 1t threw the whole
 town into radiance and made the Scar
 let Letter on the breast of Hester
 Prynne glow with fierce bright | ness.
 They cast their eyes aloft and a 1 great letter A, marked out in lines of dull red light. seemed to appear fin l heaven. At that instant. and in that 1 light, they. were aware of the figure of old Roger Chillingworth standing not
 far from the scaffold watching them. Worthy sir" said Chillingworth, who | now advanced to the foot of the scaf- l fold. "Pious Master Dimmesdale. can 1 this be you? We mon oY study need I close looking after. Come, sir. let me
 lead you home. These books! These 1 Poooksi"
 T will go home with you" answered Dimmesdale weakly.
 The next day all Easton said that a | great red Ietter---the letter A, had ap-
 peared in the sky to signify Angel. for | that. as good Governor Winthrop had that night been made an angel, 1t had doubtless been held fit that there should be some notice thereof. Hester had been so shocked by the | condition in which Arthur Dimmesdale had revealed himself to her on the l night when she stood with him on the scaffold that she resolved upon a bold course of action. She saw clearly the l manner of her husbands revenge, and, | in spite of her oath, determined that she would warn Dimmesdale of his peril and anounce to him the true relation in which Chillingworth stood to her. Seixing a favorable opportunity, she spoke with her husband and begged | him to spare Dimmesdale. But he an- swered that 1t was not given to him to pardon--only to revenge.
 Tt ts our fate." he said.
 Then she warned him that she would reveal all to the clergyman. Co they way" replied he. Learning that Dimmesdale had gone
 to visit the Apostle Eliot among his Indian converts in the wilderness He's
 ter. knowing the path by which he would return. intercepted him in the forest There she revealed to him the fact that Roger Chillingworth was her husband. that he knew of the minis ter's participation in her guilt, and she showed the young clergyman what he himself had begun to suspect by intui- tion, that the old man was stretch ing his victim upon a bed of daily phy- sical and mental torture in the pur- suit of an unsuitable revenge.
 Cut off for seven years from all ex- cept the most formal intercourse with her kind, Hester's thoughts had taken bolder and wider flights than were common to the ordinary feminine intel lects of those days. She now seemed all strength where Dimmesdale seem ed all weakness. In the dim aisles of the primeval forest she now urged the young man to take the step which she had refused to take for herself-to flee to other lands. There he could escape the vengeance of Roger Chillingworth and there he might begin all anew, rise to great heights by his scholarship and be yet great power for good in the world. Peace, happiness, every thing he yearned for, she told him, lay across the broad pathway of the sea.
 But Dimmesdale hesitated. "Oh, Hester" he cried, there is not the strength or courage left me to venture into the wide. strange. difficult world alone--alone. Hester?'
 Thou shalt not go alone" she re- piled firmly.
 A ship bound for England had come into port from the West Indies and Hester, whose occupation as a lay sis ter of charity had brought her into contact with the captain and crew, se- cretly secured passage on her for two adults and child, representing them as persons escaping from the rigors of the Puritan laws.
 It was with weak vanity that Dim mesdale learned that the ship was to sail the day after the inauguration of the new Governor--for he had been chosen to preach the election sermon and was gratified to think that he would have to disappear from the col ony only after having tasted the sweets of this crowning tribute to his pow CTS of oratory.
 After his interview in the forest with Hester a new life seemed to have en- tered into Arthur Dimmesdale. His eye was bright his step firm and his manner almost gay. The changed de- meanor of the clergyman wae not lost upon Chillingworth. He knew that Hester had done as she had threatened and he surmised the rest Skillfully following his surmises he found them to be correct, and he engaged passage on the same ship in which Hester and the minister were to embark with It, tie Pearl.
 The day of the inauguration of the new Governor came and in the stately procession which wended It's way through the crowded Market Place to the meeting house where the election sermon was to be preached. none held his head higher and looked the future more hopefully in the face than Arthur Dimmesdale.
 Old Mistress Hibbins. nodding her high head-dress and violating the sumptuary laws of the voIony in her velvets and brocades, came up to Hes ter whispering. Can ye tell me, is that the same clergyman ye met in the for est when ye signed the Black Book to- gether?
 Prowling about in her demented state as the unfortunate lady was accustom- ed to do. 1t was not unreasonable to suppose that she had been an unseen witness of the woodland interview be- tween Hester and the minister New ertheless Hester was startled and for a moment asked herself if she and Dim mesdale had not, indeed, signed the Black Book together when they plan ned their escape.
 As Hester stood in the crowded Mar ket Place and the procession of the great ones of the colony passed by, there was. as usual a little vacant space about her People elbowed each other in the press. but none suffered themselves to be forced into that va- cant space about the woman of the Scarlet Letter. But now into this space came rolling and swaggerfng the