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This
outward
mutability
indicated
,
and
did
not
more
than
fairly
express
,
the
various
properties
of
her
inner
life
.
Her
nature
appeared
to
possess
depth
,
too
,
as
well
as
variety
;
but
--
or
else
Hester
's
fears
deceived
her
--
it
lacked
reference
and
adaptation
to
the
world
into
which
she
was
born
.
The
child
could
not
be
made
amenable
to
rules
.
In
giving
her
existence
a
great
law
had
been
broken
;
and
the
result
was
a
being
whose
elements
were
perhaps
beautiful
and
brilliant
,
but
all
in
disorder
,
or
with
an
order
peculiar
to
themselves
,
amidst
which
the
point
of
variety
and
arrangement
was
difficult
or
impossible
to
be
discovered
.
Hester
could
only
account
for
the
child
's
character
--
and
even
then
most
vaguely
and
imperfectly
--
by
recalling
what
she
herself
had
been
during
that
momentous
period
while
Pearl
was
imbibing
her
soul
from
the
spiritual
world
,
and
her
bodily
frame
from
its
material
of
earth
.
The
mother
's
impassioned
state
had
been
the
medium
through
which
were
transmitted
to
the
unborn
infant
the
rays
of
its
moral
life
;
and
,
however
white
and
clear
originally
,
they
had
taken
the
deep
stains
of
crimson
and
gold
,
the
fiery
lustre
,
the
black
shadow
,
and
the
untempered
light
of
the
intervening
substance
.
Above
all
,
the
warfare
of
Hester
's
spirit
at
that
epoch
was
perpetuated
in
Pearl
.
She
could
recognize
her
wild
,
desperate
,
defiant
mood
,
the
flightiness
of
her
temper
,
and
even
some
of
the
very
cloud-shapes
of
gloom
and
despondency
that
had
brooded
in
her
heart
.
They
were
now
illuminated
by
the
morning
radiance
of
a
young
child
's
disposition
,
but
,
later
in
the
day
of
earthly
existence
,
might
be
prolific
of
the
storm
and
whirlwind
.
The
discipline
of
the
family
in
those
days
was
of
a
far
more
rigid
kind
than
now
.
The
frown
,
the
harsh
rebuke
,
the
frequent
application
of
the
rod
,
enjoined
by
Scriptural
authority
,
were
used
,
not
merely
in
the
way
of
punishment
for
actual
offences
,
but
as
a
wholesome
regimen
for
the
growth
and
promotion
of
all
childish
virtues
.
Hester
Prynne
,
nevertheless
,
the
loving
mother
of
this
one
child
,
ran
little
risk
of
erring
on
the
side
of
undue
severity
.
Mindful
,
however
,
of
her
own
errors
and
misfortunes
,
she
early
sought
to
impose
a
tender
but
strict
control
over
the
infant
immortality
that
was
committed
to
her
charge
.
But
the
task
was
beyond
her
skill
.
after
testing
both
smiles
and
frowns
,
and
proving
that
neither
mode
of
treatment
possessed
any
calculable
influence
,
Hester
was
ultimately
compelled
to
stand
aside
and
permit
the
child
to
be
swayed
by
her
own
impulses
.
Physical
compulsion
or
restraint
was
effectual
,
of
course
,
while
it
lasted
.
As
to
any
other
kind
of
discipline
,
whether
addressed
to
her
mind
or
heart
,
little
Pearl
might
or
might
not
be
within
its
reach
,
in
accordance
with
the
caprice
that
ruled
the
moment
.
Her
mother
,
while
Pearl
was
yet
an
infant
,
grew
acquainted
with
a
certain
peculiar
look
,
that
warned
her
when
it
would
be
labour
thrown
away
to
insist
,
persuade
or
plead
.
It
was
a
look
so
intelligent
,
yet
inexplicable
,
perverse
,
sometimes
so
malicious
,
but
generally
accompanied
by
a
wild
flow
of
spirits
,
that
Hester
could
not
help
questioning
at
such
moments
whether
Pearl
was
a
human
child
.
She
seemed
rather
an
airy
sprite
,
which
,
after
playing
its
fantastic
sports
for
a
little
while
upon
the
cottage
floor
,
would
flit
away
with
a
mocking
smile
.
Whenever
that
look
appeared
in
her
wild
,
bright
,
deeply
black
eyes
,
it
invested
her
with
a
strange
remoteness
and
intangibility
:
it
was
as
if
she
were
hovering
in
the
air
,
and
might
vanish
,
like
a
glimmering
light
that
comes
we
know
not
whence
and
goes
we
know
not
whither
.
Beholding
it
,
Hester
was
constrained
to
rush
towards
the
child
--
to
pursue
the
little
elf
in
the
flight
which
she
invariably
began
--
to
snatch
her
to
her
bosom
with
a
close
pressure
and
earnest
kisses
--
not
so
much
from
overflowing
love
as
to
assure
herself
that
Pearl
was
flesh
and
blood
,
and
not
utterly
delusive
.
But
Pearl
's
laugh
,
when
she
was
caught
,
though
full
of
merriment
and
music
,
made
her
mother
more
doubtful
than
before
.
Heart-smitten
at
this
bewildering
and
baffling
spell
,
that
so
often
came
between
herself
and
her
sole
treasure
,
whom
she
had
bought
so
dear
,
and
who
was
all
her
world
,
Hester
sometimes
burst
into
passionate
tears
.
Then
,
perhaps
--
for
there
was
no
foreseeing
how
it
might
affect
her
--
Pearl
would
frown
,
and
clench
her
little
fist
,
and
harden
her
small
features
into
a
stern
,
unsympathising
look
of
discontent
.
Not
seldom
she
would
laugh
anew
,
and
louder
than
before
,
like
a
thing
incapable
and
unintelligent
of
human
sorrow
.
Or
--
but
this
more
rarely
happened
--
she
would
be
convulsed
with
rage
of
grief
and
sob
out
her
love
for
her
mother
in
broken
words
,
and
seem
intent
on
proving
that
she
had
a
heart
by
breaking
it
.
Yet
Hester
was
hardly
safe
in
confiding
herself
to
that
gusty
tenderness
:
it
passed
as
suddenly
as
it
came
.
Brooding
over
all
these
matters
,
the
mother
felt
like
one
who
has
evoked
a
spirit
,
but
,
by
some
irregularity
in
the
process
of
conjuration
,
has
failed
to
win
the
master-word
that
should
control
this
new
and
incomprehensible
intelligence
.
Her
only
real
comfort
was
when
the
child
lay
in
the
placidity
of
sleep
.
Then
she
was
sure
of
her
,
and
tasted
hours
of
quiet
,
sad
,
delicious
happiness
;
until
--
perhaps
with
that
perverse
expression
glimmering
from
beneath
her
opening
lids
--
little
Pearl
awoke
!
How
soon
--
with
what
strange
rapidity
,
indeed
did
Pearl
arrive
at
an
age
that
was
capable
of
social
intercourse
beyond
the
mother
's
ever-ready
smile
and
nonsense-words
!
And
then
what
a
happiness
would
it
have
been
could
Hester
Prynne
have
heard
her
clear
,
bird-like
voice
mingling
with
the
uproar
of
other
childish
voices
,
and
have
distinguished
and
unravelled
her
own
darling
's
tones
,
amid
all
the
entangled
outcry
of
a
group
of
sportive
children
.
But
this
could
never
be
.
Pearl
was
a
born
outcast
of
the
infantile
world
.
An
imp
of
evil
,
emblem
and
product
of
sin
,
she
had
no
right
among
christened
infants
.
Nothing
was
more
remarkable
than
the
instinct
,
as
it
seemed
,
with
which
the
child
comprehended
her
loneliness
:
the
destiny
that
had
drawn
an
inviolable
circle
round
about
her
:
the
whole
peculiarity
,
in
short
,
of
her
position
in
respect
to
other
children
.
Never
since
her
release
from
prison
had
Hester
met
the
public
gaze
without
her
.
In
all
her
walks
about
the
town
,
Pearl
,
too
,
was
there
:
first
as
the
babe
in
arms
,
and
afterwards
as
the
little
girl
,
small
companion
of
her
mother
,
holding
a
forefinger
with
her
whole
grasp
,
and
tripping
along
at
the
rate
of
three
or
four
footsteps
to
one
of
Hester
's
.
She
saw
the
children
of
the
settlement
on
the
grassy
margin
of
the
street
,
or
at
the
domestic
thresholds
,
disporting
themselves
in
such
grim
fashions
as
the
Puritanic
nurture
would
permit
!
playing
at
going
to
church
,
perchance
,
or
at
scourging
Quakers
,
or
taking
scalps
in
a
sham
fight
with
the
Indians
,
or
scaring
one
another
with
freaks
of
imitative
witchcraft
.
Pearl
saw
,
and
gazed
intently
,
but
never
sought
to
make
acquaintance
.
If
spoken
to
,
she
would
not
speak
again
.
If
the
children
gathered
about
her
,
as
they
sometimes
did
,
Pearl
would
grow
positively
terrible
in
her
puny
wrath
,
snatching
up
stones
to
fling
at
them
,
with
shrill
,
incoherent
exclamations
,
that
made
her
mother
tremble
,
because
they
had
so
much
the
sound
of
a
witch
's
anathemas
in
some
unknown
tongue
.
The
truth
was
,
that
the
little
Puritans
,
being
of
the
most
intolerant
brood
that
ever
lived
,
had
got
a
vague
idea
of
something
outlandish
,
unearthly
,
or
at
variance
with
ordinary
fashions
,
in
the
mother
and
child
,
and
therefore
scorned
them
in
their
hearts
,
and
not
unfrequently
reviled
them
with
their
tongues
.
Pearl
felt
the
sentiment
,
and
requited
it
with
the
bitterest
hatred
that
can
be
supposed
to
rankle
in
a
childish
bosom
.
These
outbreaks
of
a
fierce
temper
had
a
kind
of
value
,
and
even
comfort
for
the
mother
;
because
there
was
at
least
an
intelligible
earnestness
in
the
mood
,
instead
of
the
fitful
caprice
that
so
often
thwarted
her
in
the
child
's
manifestations
.
It
appalled
her
,
nevertheless
,
to
discern
here
,
again
,
a
shadowy
reflection
of
the
evil
that
had
existed
in
herself
.
All
this
enmity
and
passion
had
Pearl
inherited
,
by
inalienable
right
,
out
of
Hester
's
heart
.
Mother
and
daughter
stood
together
in
the
same
circle
of
seclusion
from
human
society
;
and
in
the
nature
of
the
child
seemed
to
be
perpetuated
those
unquiet
elements
that
had
distracted
Hester
Prynne
before
Pearl
's
birth
,
but
had
since
begun
to
be
soothed
away
by
the
softening
influences
of
maternity
.
