-
Главная
-
- Книги
-
- Авторы
-
- Натаниэль Хоторн
-
- Алая буква
-
- Стр. 14/92
Для того чтобы воспользоваться озвучкой предложений, необходимо
Войти или зарегистрироваться
Озвучка предложений доступна при наличии PRO-доступа
Купить PRO-доступ
Lonely
as
was
Hester
's
situation
,
and
without
a
friend
on
earth
who
dared
to
show
himself
,
she
,
however
,
incurred
no
risk
of
want
.
She
possessed
an
art
that
sufficed
,
even
in
a
land
that
afforded
comparatively
little
scope
for
its
exercise
,
to
supply
food
for
her
thriving
infant
and
herself
.
It
was
the
art
,
then
,
as
now
,
almost
the
only
one
within
a
woman
's
grasp
--
of
needle-work
.
She
bore
on
her
breast
,
in
the
curiously
embroidered
letter
,
a
specimen
of
her
delicate
and
imaginative
skill
,
of
which
the
dames
of
a
court
might
gladly
have
availed
themselves
,
to
add
the
richer
and
more
spiritual
adornment
of
human
ingenuity
to
their
fabrics
of
silk
and
gold
.
Here
,
indeed
,
in
the
sable
simplicity
that
generally
characterised
the
Puritanic
modes
of
dress
,
there
might
be
an
infrequent
call
for
the
finer
productions
of
her
handiwork
.
Yet
the
taste
of
the
age
,
demanding
whatever
was
elaborate
in
compositions
of
this
kind
,
did
not
fail
to
extend
its
influence
over
our
stern
progenitors
,
who
had
cast
behind
them
so
many
fashions
which
it
might
seem
harder
to
dispense
with
.
Public
ceremonies
,
such
as
ordinations
,
the
installation
of
magistrates
,
and
all
that
could
give
majesty
to
the
forms
in
which
a
new
government
manifested
itself
to
the
people
,
were
,
as
a
matter
of
policy
,
marked
by
a
stately
and
well-conducted
ceremonial
,
and
a
sombre
,
but
yet
a
studied
magnificence
.
Deep
ruffs
,
painfully
wrought
bands
,
and
gorgeously
embroidered
gloves
,
were
all
deemed
necessary
to
the
official
state
of
men
assuming
the
reins
of
power
,
and
were
readily
allowed
to
individuals
dignified
by
rank
or
wealth
,
even
while
sumptuary
laws
forbade
these
and
similar
extravagances
to
the
plebeian
order
.
In
the
array
of
funerals
,
too
--
whether
for
the
apparel
of
the
dead
body
,
or
to
typify
,
by
manifold
emblematic
devices
of
sable
cloth
and
snowy
lawn
,
the
sorrow
of
the
survivors
--
there
was
a
frequent
and
characteristic
demand
for
such
labour
as
Hester
Prynne
could
supply
.
Baby-linen
--
for
babies
then
wore
robes
of
state
--
afforded
still
another
possibility
of
toil
and
emolument
.
By
degrees
,
not
very
slowly
,
her
handiwork
became
what
would
now
be
termed
the
fashion
.
Whether
from
commiseration
for
a
woman
of
so
miserable
a
destiny
;
or
from
the
morbid
curiosity
that
gives
a
fictitious
value
even
to
common
or
worthless
things
;
or
by
whatever
other
intangible
circumstance
was
then
,
as
now
,
sufficient
to
bestow
,
on
some
persons
,
what
others
might
seek
in
vain
;
or
because
Hester
really
filled
a
gap
which
must
otherwise
have
remained
vacant
;
it
is
certain
that
she
had
ready
and
fairly
equited
employment
for
as
many
hours
as
she
saw
fit
to
occupy
with
her
needle
.
Vanity
,
it
may
be
,
chose
to
mortify
itself
,
by
putting
on
,
for
ceremonials
of
pomp
and
state
,
the
garments
that
had
been
wrought
by
her
sinful
hands
.
Her
needle-work
was
seen
on
the
ruff
of
the
Governor
;
military
men
wore
it
on
their
scarfs
,
and
the
minister
on
his
band
;
it
decked
the
baby
's
little
cap
;
it
was
shut
up
,
to
be
mildewed
and
moulder
away
,
in
the
coffins
of
the
dead
.
But
it
is
not
recorded
that
,
in
a
single
instance
,
her
skill
was
called
in
to
embroider
the
white
veil
which
was
to
cover
the
pure
blushes
of
a
bride
.
The
exception
indicated
the
ever
relentless
vigour
with
which
society
frowned
upon
her
sin
.
Hester
sought
not
to
acquire
anything
beyond
a
subsistence
,
of
the
plainest
and
most
ascetic
description
,
for
herself
,
and
a
simple
abundance
for
her
child
.
Her
own
dress
was
of
the
coarsest
materials
and
the
most
sombre
hue
,
with
only
that
one
ornament
--
the
scarlet
letter
--
which
it
was
her
doom
to
wear
.
The
child
's
attire
,
on
the
other
hand
,
was
distinguished
by
a
fanciful
,
or
,
we
may
rather
say
,
a
fantastic
ingenuity
,
which
served
,
indeed
,
to
heighten
the
airy
charm
that
early
began
to
develop
itself
in
the
little
girl
,
but
which
appeared
to
have
also
a
deeper
meaning
.
We
may
speak
further
of
it
hereafter
.
Except
for
that
small
expenditure
in
the
decoration
of
her
infant
,
Hester
bestowed
all
her
superfluous
means
in
charity
,
on
wretches
less
miserable
than
herself
,
and
who
not
unfrequently
insulted
the
hand
that
fed
them
.
Much
of
the
time
,
which
she
might
readily
have
applied
to
the
better
efforts
of
her
art
,
she
employed
in
making
coarse
garments
for
the
poor
.
It
is
probable
that
there
was
an
idea
of
penance
in
this
mode
of
occupation
,
and
that
she
offered
up
a
real
sacrifice
of
enjoyment
in
devoting
so
many
hours
to
such
rude
handiwork
.
She
had
in
her
nature
a
rich
,
voluptuous
,
Oriental
characteristic
--
a
taste
for
the
gorgeously
beautiful
,
which
,
save
in
the
exquisite
productions
of
her
needle
,
found
nothing
else
,
in
all
the
possibilities
of
her
life
,
to
exercise
itself
upon
.
Women
derive
a
pleasure
,
incomprehensible
to
the
other
sex
,
from
the
delicate
toil
of
the
needle
.
To
Hester
Prynne
it
might
have
been
a
mode
of
expressing
,
and
therefore
soothing
,
the
passion
of
her
life
.
Like
all
other
joys
,
she
rejected
it
as
sin
.
This
morbid
meddling
of
conscience
with
an
immaterial
matter
betokened
,
it
is
to
be
feared
,
no
genuine
and
steadfast
penitence
,
but
something
doubtful
,
something
that
might
be
deeply
wrong
beneath
.
In
this
matter
,
Hester
Prynne
came
to
have
a
part
to
perform
in
the
world
.
With
her
native
energy
of
character
and
rare
capacity
,
it
could
not
entirely
cast
her
off
,
although
it
had
set
a
mark
upon
her
,
more
intolerable
to
a
woman
's
heart
than
that
which
branded
the
brow
of
Cain
.
In
all
her
intercourse
with
society
,
however
,
there
was
nothing
that
made
her
feel
as
if
she
belonged
to
it
.
Every
gesture
,
every
word
,
and
even
the
silence
of
those
with
whom
she
came
in
contact
,
implied
,
and
often
expressed
,
that
she
was
banished
,
and
as
much
alone
as
if
she
inhabited
another
sphere
,
or
communicated
with
the
common
nature
by
other
organs
and
senses
than
the
rest
of
human
kind
.
She
stood
apart
from
moral
interests
,
yet
close
beside
them
,
like
a
ghost
that
revisits
the
familiar
fireside
,
and
can
no
longer
make
itself
seen
or
felt
;
no
more
smile
with
the
household
joy
,
nor
mourn
with
the
kindred
sorrow
;
or
,
should
it
succeed
in
manifesting
its
forbidden
sympathy
,
awakening
only
terror
and
horrible
repugnance
.
These
emotions
,
in
fact
,
and
its
bitterest
scorn
besides
,
seemed
to
be
the
sole
portion
that
she
retained
in
the
universal
heart
.
It
was
not
an
age
of
delicacy
;
and
her
position
,
although
she
understood
it
well
,
and
was
in
little
danger
of
forgetting
it
,
was
often
brought
before
her
vivid
self-perception
,
like
a
new
anguish
,
by
the
rudest
touch
upon
the
tenderest
spot
.
The
poor
,
as
we
have
already
said
,
whom
she
sought
out
to
be
the
objects
of
her
bounty
,
often
reviled
the
hand
that
was
stretched
forth
to
succour
them
.
Dames
of
elevated
rank
,
likewise
,
whose
doors
she
entered
in
the
way
of
her
occupation
,
were
accustomed
to
distil
drops
of
bitterness
into
her
heart
;
sometimes
through
that
alchemy
of
quiet
malice
,
by
which
women
can
concoct
a
subtle
poison
from
ordinary
trifles
;
and
sometimes
,
also
,
by
a
coarser
expression
,
that
fell
upon
the
sufferer
's
defenceless
breast
like
a
rough
blow
upon
an
ulcerated
wound
.
Hester
had
schooled
herself
long
and
well
;
and
she
never
responded
to
these
attacks
,
save
by
a
flush
of
crimson
that
rose
irrepressibly
over
her
pale
cheek
,
and
again
subsided
into
the
depths
of
her
bosom
.
She
was
patient
--
a
martyr
,
indeed
but
she
forebore
to
pray
for
enemies
,
lest
,
in
spite
of
her
forgiving
aspirations
,
the
words
of
the
blessing
should
stubbornly
twist
themselves
into
a
curse
.
Continually
,
and
in
a
thousand
other
ways
,
did
she
feel
the
innumerable
throbs
of
anguish
that
had
been
so
cunningly
contrived
for
her
by
the
undying
,
the
ever-active
sentence
of
the
Puritan
tribunal
.
Clergymen
paused
in
the
streets
,
to
address
words
of
exhortation
,
that
brought
a
crowd
,
with
its
mingled
grin
and
frown
,
around
the
poor
,
sinful
woman
.
If
she
entered
a
church
,
trusting
to
share
the
Sabbath
smile
of
the
Universal
Father
,
it
was
often
her
mishap
to
find
herself
the
text
of
the
discourse
.
She
grew
to
have
a
dread
of
children
;
for
they
had
imbibed
from
their
parents
a
vague
idea
of
something
horrible
in
this
dreary
woman
gliding
silently
through
the
town
,
with
never
any
companion
but
one
only
child
.
