THE SCARLET LETTER.

Te Aroha News, Volume XI, Issue 1706, 16 January 1895, Page 4

THE SCARLET LETTER.

By HATHANIEL HATOOME

' ' (Continued.) —xnou wilt go!” said Hester calmly, as he met her glance. .. • •< The' decision once made, a glow of strange enjoyment threw its flickering brightness over the trouble of his breast. It was the- exhilarating effect—upon a prisoner just escaped from the dungeon of his own heart —of breathing the wild, free atmosphere of an unredeemed, unchristainized, lawless region. His spirit rose, as it were; with a bound, and attained a nearer prospect of the sky than throughout all the misery which had kept him groveling on the earth. ...Of. a. deeply religious temperament, there was inevitably a tinge of the devotional in his mood. v y

“Do I feel joy again?" cried he, wondering at himself. “Methought the germ of it was dead in me! O.Hester, thou art my better angell I seem to have flung myself—sick, sin stained and sorrow blackened—down upon these forest leaves, and to have risen up all made anew, and with new powers to glorify him that hath been merciful! This is already tho better life! Why did we not find it sooner?" . ‘ ‘Let us not look back,” answered Hester Prynne. “The past is gone! Wherefore should, wo linger upon it now? See! With this symbol I undo it all, and make it as it had never been!”

So speaking, she imdid the clasp that fastened the scarlet letter, and taking it from her bosom threw it to a distance among the withered leaves. The mystic token alighted on the hither verge of tho stream. With a hand’s breadth farther flight it would have fallen into the water and have’ given the little brook another woe to carry onward, besides the unintelligible tale which it still kept murmuring about. But there lay the embroidered letter, glittering like a lost jewel, which some ill fated wanderer might pick up, ? and thenceforth bo haunted by strange phantoms of guilt, sinkings of the heart and unaccountable misfortune. .

The stigma gone Hester heaved a longv. deep sigh, in which the burden of shame and anguish departed from her spirit. Oh, exquisite relief I She had not known the weight until she felt the freedom! By another impulse she took off the formal cap that confined her hair; and down it fell upon her shoulders, dark and rich, with at once a shadow and ‘a light in its abundance, and imparting the charm of softness to her features. There played around her mouth and beamed out of her eyes a radiant and tender smile that seemed gushing from the very heart of womanhood. A crimson flush was glowing on her cheek that had been long iso pale. Her sex, her youth and the whole richness of her beauty came back from what men call the irrevocable past, and clustered themBelves with her maiden hope and a happiness before unknown within the magic circle of this hour. r

And, as if the gloom of the earth and eky had been but the effluence of these two' mortal hearts, it ; vanished with their sorrow. All at once, as with a sudden smile of heaven, forth burst the sunshine, pouring a very flood into the Obscure forest, gladdening each green leaf, transmuting the yellow fallen ones to gold and gleaming adown the gray trunks of the solemn trees. The objects that had made a shadow hitherto embodied the brightness now. The course of .the. little brook might be traced by its merry gleam afar into the wood’s heart of mystery, which had become a mystery of joy. Such was . the sympathy of nature — that wild, heathen nature of the forest, never subjugated by human law, nor illumined by higher truth—with the bliss of . these two! spirits! Love, whether newly born or aroused from a deathlike slumber, must always Create a sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance that it overflows upon the Sutward wcijdd. Had tne kept its glo«©> it would have beeffSright in Hester’s eyes, and bright in Arthur Dimmesdale’s!

Hester looked at him with the thrill Of another joy, f “Thou must know Pearl!” said she. “Our little Pearl! Thou hast seen her — yes, I know it—-but thou wilt see her now with other eyes. She is a strange child. I hardly comprehend her. But thou wilt love her dearly as I do, and wilt advise me how to deal with her.” ‘‘Dost thou think the child will be glad, to know me?” asked the minister somewhat uneasily. “I have- long shrunk from children because they often showh. distrust—a backwardness 1 ; to! be familiar with me. I have even been afraid of little Pearl.” t;

: “Ah, that was sad!” answered the mother. “But she will love thee dearly and thou her.' She is not far off. • I will call her! Pearl! Pearl!” f

“I see the child,” observed the minis- “ Yonder she is, standing iff a streak of sunshine, a good way off on the other Side of the brook. So thou thinkest the child will love me?” V i

Hester smiled and again Called to Pearl, who was visible at somo distance, as the minister had described her, like a bright appareled vision iff a sunbeam, which fell down upon her /through an arch of boughs. The ray quivered to and fro making her figurffdiin or distinct—how a real child, now like a child’s spirit—as the splendor went and came again. She heard ter voice and approached slo.ivly through the forest. / - Pearl had not found tke hour pass wearisomely while her mother sat talking with the clergymaij. The great black forest—stem as it showed itself to those who brought the guilt and troubles of the world into its bosom—became the playmate of the lonely infant as well as ifc kne->\, how. Somber as it was it put on the kindest of its moods to welcome her. * * * . ; And she was gentler here than in the grassy margined streets of theesetMement or in her mother’s cottage. The flowers seemed to know/it, and one another whispered as she passed, “Adorn thyself with me, thou beautiful child; adorn thyself with mei” and to please them Pearl gathered the violets and anemones and columbines land some twigs of the freshest green/ which the alii

trees held down "before her eyes. "With these she decorated her hair and her young waist, and became a nymph child, or an infant dryad, or whatever else was in closest sympathy with the antique wood.. In such guise had Pearl adorned herself, when she heard her mothers voice and came slowly back. Slowly, for she. saw the clergyman.

CHAPTER XTV. THE CHILD AT THE BROOKSIDE. "inou wui) iovtj uer u&iriyy- lepeaica Hester Prynne, as she and" the minister sat watching little Pearl. “Dost thou not think her beautiful? And see with what natural skill she has made those simple flowery adorn* - her?" Had she gathered pearls and diamonds and rubies in the wood they could not have become her better.. She is a splendid child! But I know, whoso brow’sho has!” “Dost thcu know, Hester,” said Arthur Dimmesdale; with an unquiet smile, “that this dear child, tripping about always at thy side, hath caused me many analarm? Methought—Oh, Hester, what a thought is that, and how terrible to dread it!—that my own features were partly repeated in her face, and so strikingly that the world might see theml But she is mostly thinel” “No, no! Not mostly!” answered the mother, with a tender smile. “A little longer and thou needest not to be afraid to trace whose child she is. But how Btrangely beautiful she looks, with those wild flowers in her hair! It is as if one of the fairies, whom' we left * in our dear old England, had decked her out to meet us.” .. ..• . .. , .

It was with a feeling which neither of them had ever before experienced thafcf they sat and watched Pearl’s slow; advance. . In her was visible the tie that united them. She had been offered to the world these seven years past as the living hieroglyphic, in which,was revealed the secret they so darkly sought to hide—all written in this symbol—all plainly manifest —had , there been a prophet dr magician skilled to read the character of flame! And Pearl was the oneness of their being. Be the foregone Bvil what it might, how could they ioubt that their earthly lives and future iestinies were conjoined, when they beueld at once the material union and the * jpiritual idea in whom they met and were to dwell immortally together? Thoughts like these—and perhaps other thoughts, which they did not acknowljdge or define—threw an awe about the fluid as she came onward. “Let her see nothing strange—no passion nor eagerness—in thy way off accosting her,” whispered Hester. “Our Pearl is a fitful and fantastic little elf sometimes. Especially, she is seldom tolerant of emotion, when she does not fully comprehend the why and wherefore. But the child hath strong affections! She loves me and will love thee!’ “Thou canst not think,” said the minister, glancing aside at Hester Prynne, “how my heart dreads this interview and yearns for it! But in truth, as I already told thee, children are not readily .won, to.be.f amiliajmthjtne. v. not climb my knee, nor prattle in my ear, nor answer to my smile; but stand, tpart and eye mo strangely. Even little babes, when I take them in my arms, weep bitterly. Yet Pearl twice in her little lifetime hath been kind to me! The first time—thou lcnowest it well! The last was when thou ledst her with thee to the house of yonder stem old governor.” “And thou didst plead so bravely in her behalf and mine!” answered the mother. “I remember it, and so dial! little Pearl. Fear nothing! She may be strange and shy at first, but will soon learn to love thee!’’ , By this time Pearl had reached the margin of the brook, and stood on the farther side, gazing silently at Hestorand the clergyman, who still sat together on the mossy tree trunk, waiting to receive her. Just where she had paused the brook chanced to form a pool, so smooth and quiet that it reflected a perfect image of her little figure, with all the brilliant picturesqueness of her beauty, in its adornment of flowers and wreathed foliage, but more refined and spiritualized than the reality. " V. : This image, so nearly identical with the living Pearl, seemed to communicate somewhat of its own shadowy and intangible quality to the child herself. It was strange, the way in which Pearl stood, looking so steadfastly at them through the dim medium of the forest gloom; herself, meanwhile, all glorified with a ray of sunshine that was attracted thitherward as by a certain sympathy. In - the brook beneath Stood another child —another and the same—with likewise its ray of golden light. Hester felt herself; in some indistinct and tantalizing manner; estranged from Pearl; as if the child, in her lonely ramble through the forest, had stayed out of the sphere in which she and her mother dwelt to gether, and was now vainly seeking td: return to it.

There was both truth and error in the impression; the child and mother were! estranged, but through Hester’s fault,! not Pearl’s. Since the latter rambled from her side another inmate had been admitted within the circle of the mother’s feelings, and so modified the aspect of them all .that Pearl, the returning wanderer, could not find her wonted place, and hardly knew where she was. “I have a strange fancy," observed the sensitive minister, “that this brook is the boundary between two worlds, and thou canst never meet thy Pearl again. Or is she an elfish spirit, who, as* the legends of our childhood taught ns, is forbidden to cross a running stream? Pray hasten her, for this delay has already imparted a tremor to my nerves.” “Come, dearest child!” said Hester encouragingly, and stretching out both her arms. “How slow thou art! When hast thou been so sluggish before now? Here is a friend of mine, who must be thy friend also. Thou wilt have twice as much love henceforward as thy mother alone could give thee! Leap . across,the brook and come to ns. Thou leap like a young deer!” Peari, without responding in any man-* ner to these honey sweet expressions, remained on the other side of the brook. Now she fixed her bright, wild eyes on her mother, now on the minister, and now included them both in the same glance, as if to detect and explain to herself the relation which they bore to

one anotner. For some unaccomitame | reason, as Arthur Dimmesdale felt the child’s eyes upon himself, his hand- : with that gesture so habitual as to have become involuntary-stole over his heart. At length, assuming a singular air of authority, Pearl stretched out her -> hand with the small forefinger extend- | ed and pointing evidently toward, her mother’s breast. And beneath, m the j mirror of the brook, there was the flower girdled and sunny image of little Pearl; pointing her small forefinger too. | “Thou strange child, why dost , thou , „ n t pome to me?” exclaimed Hester. , Pearl still pointed withher forefingor, and a frowmgathered -omher hrow-the , more impressive from the childish, the , almost babylike aspect of the features ! that -conveyed it. As her mother still kept beckoning to her, and arraying her j face in a holiday suit of - unaccustomed smile's, the child stamped her foot with a yet more imperious look and gesture. In the brook again was the fantastic, beauty of the image, with its reflected ; frown, its pointed finger and imperious i gesture, giving emphasis to the aspect off little Pearl. @ ' - 1

“Hasten, Pearl, or I shall be angry With thee!” cried Hester Prynne, who, however inured to such behavior on the elf - child’s .part at other seasons, was naturally anxious for a more seemly deportment n,6w. “Leap across.the brook,naughty child, and run hither! Else I must cometo thee!” But Pearl, not a-whit startled at her mother's threats, any more than mollified by her'entreaties, now suddenly burst Into a fit of passion, gesticulating violently and throwing her small figure into the most extravagant contortions. She accompanied this "wild outbreak with piercing shrieks, which the woods reverberated on all sides; so that, alone as she was in her childish and unreasonable wrath, it seemed as if a .hidden multitude were lending her their, sympathy and encouragement. Seen in the brook once more was the shadowy wraith of Pearl’s image, crowned and girdled with flowers, but stamping its. foot, wildly gesticulating, and in the midst of all still pointing its small forefinger:at Hester’s bosom! “I; See what ails the child,” whispered Hester to the clergyman, and turning pale in spite of a strong effort to conceal her trouble and annoyance. “Children will not abide any, the slightest, change in the accustomed aspect of things that are daily before their eyes. Pearl misses something which she has always seen me wear!” _ .- _i “I pray yon,” answered, the * minister, “if thou hast any means of pacifying the , child, do it forthwith! Save it were the cankered wrath of an old witch, like Mistress Hibbins,” added he, attempting to smile, “I know nothing that I would hot sooner encounter than this passion in a child. In' Pearl’s young beauty, as in the wrinkled witch, it has a preternatural effect. Pacify her, if thou lovest me!” . ... c / v Hester turned ’again toward Pearl, jEufh a crinuLoq.bli upon her cheek, a conscious glance aside at the clergyman, and then a heavy sigh; while, even be- : fore she had time to speak, the blush yielded to a .deadly pallor.

: s “Pearl.” said she sadly, “look down at thy feet! There!—before tfieel—on tfio hither side of the brook!”

The child turned her eyes to the point indicated, and there lay the scarlet letter, so close upon the margin of the stream that th 6 gold embroidery was reflected in it.

; “Bring it hither!” said Hester. “Come thou and take it up!” answered PearL

f: “Was ever such a childl”, observed Hester aside to the minister. “Oh, 1 have much to tell thee about her! But in very truth she is right as. regards this hateful token. I must bear its tora'little longer—only a few days longer-—until we shall have , left this region, and look back hither as to a Jand which we have dreamed of. The forest cannot hide it! The midocean ‘fihall take it from my hand and swallow It up forever!” } With these words she advanced to the •margin of the brook; took up the, scarlet (letter and fastened it again into Her bosom. Hopefully, but a moment ago, as Hester had spoken of drowning it in ;the deep sea, there was a sense of ineyi- ; table doom upon her, as she thus received 'back this deadly symbol from the hand of fate. She had flung it into infinite space—she had drawn an hour’s free breath—and here again was : the scarlet misery, glittering on the old spot! So it ever is, whether thus typified or no, that an evil deed invests itself with the character of doom.? Hester next gathered up. the hteavy tresses of her hair and confined them beneath her cap. As if there were a withering spell in the sad letter, her beauty, the warmth and richness of her womanhood, departed like fading sunshine and a gray shadow seemed to ■■■fall across her. v ' ’ v ' ; * '' When the dreary change was wrought Bhe extended her hand to Pearl.

r “Dost thou know thy mother now, child?’ asked she reproachfully, but with a subdued tone. “Wilt thou come across the brook and own thy mother, now that she has her shame upon her—now that she is sad?”

* ■=. “Yes; now I will!” answered the child, bounding , across the brook, and clasping Hester in her arms. “Now thou art toy mother indeed! And lam thy little Pearl!”

In a mood of tenderness that.was not Usual with her Bhe drew down her mother’s head and' kissed her brow and both her cheeks. But then—by a kind of necessity that always impelled this child to alloy whatever comfort she might chance to give with a throb of anguish—Pearl put up her mouth, and kissed the scarlet letter too! >

“That was not kind!” said Hester. “When thou hast shown me a little love, thoumockest me!”

| “Why doth the minister sit yonder?” asked Pearl. I “He waits to welcome thee,” replied her mother. “Come, thou, and entreat his blessing! He loves thee, my little jPearl, and loves thyjpother too. Wilt thou not love him? Come; ho loners to greet thee!” ] “Doth he love ns?” said Pearl, looking up 'with acute intelligence into heir toother’s face. “Will he go back with Us. hand in hand, we three together, into the townr-

“Not now, dear child, ’ answered Hes- - “lyut mdays to come ne win waix hand in hand with us. We will have a home and fireside of our own, and thou ehalt sit upon his knee and he will teach thee many things and love thee dearly. Thou wilt love him, wilt thou not?’ * will he always keep his hand over his heart?” inquired Pearl. r “Foolish child, what a question is that!” exclaimed her mother. “Come and ask his blessing!” But whether influenced by the jeal T ousy that seems instinctive with . .every petted child toward, a dangerous rival or from whatever caprice Of her freakish nature, Pearlwould show no favortotD* clergyman. It was only by an of force that her mother brought her Jp . to him, hanging back and manifesting her reluctance by odd grimaces; off Which, ever since her babyhood, she had possessed a singular variety, and could transform her mobile physiognomy into a series of different aspects,, with a new mischief in them, each and all. The minister-—painfully embarrassed, but hoping that a kiss might prove a talisman to admit him into the child’s kindlier regards—bent forward and impressed one on her "brow. . •’‘Hereupon Pearl broke away from her mother, and running to the brook Stooped over it and bathed her forehead until the unwelcome kiss was quite washed off and diffused through a long lapse of the gliding water. She then remained apart, silently watching ter and the clergyman, while they talkdjT together and ! made such arrangements as were suggested, by their new position and the purposes soon to be fulfilled. And now this fateful interview had

come to a close. The dell was to be left a solitude among its dark, old trees, which, with their multitudinous tongues, would whisper long of what had passed there, and no mortal be the wiser, And the melancholy brook would add this other tale to the mystery with which its little heart was already overburdened and whereof it still kept up a murmuring babble, with not a whit more cheerfulness of tone than for ages heretofore.'

CHAPTER XV. >JHE MINISTER IN A HAZE. As tne minister aeparteu m au vance of Hester Prynne and little Pearl -threw a backward glance, half expect- "” ing that he should discover only some faintly traced features or outline of the mother and the child slowly fading into the twilight of the woods. So great a vicissitude in his life could not at once be received as reaL But there was Hester, clad in her gray robe, still standing beside the tree trunk, which some blast had overthrown a long antiquity ago • and which had ever since been covering with moss, so that these two fated ones, with earth’s heaviest burden on them, might there sit down together and find a single hour’s rest and solace. And there was Pearl, too, lightly dancing from the margin of the brook—now that the intrusive third person was gone—gmd faking berAfil placet by her mother’s side. "tins minister had not fallen asleep and dreamed. (To-Jbe continued.)