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In
order
to
free
his
mind
from
this
indistinctness
and
duplicity
of
impression
,
which
vexed
it
with
a
strange
disquietude
,
he
recalled
and
more
thoroughly
defined
the
plans
which
Hester
and
himself
had
sketched
for
their
departure
.
It
had
been
determined
between
them
that
the
Old
World
,
with
its
crowds
and
cities
,
offered
them
a
more
eligible
shelter
and
concealment
than
the
wilds
of
New
England
or
all
America
,
with
its
alternatives
of
an
Indian
wigwam
,
or
the
few
settlements
of
Europeans
scattered
thinly
along
the
sea-board
.
Not
to
speak
of
the
clergyman
's
health
,
so
inadequate
to
sustain
the
hardships
of
a
forest
life
,
his
native
gifts
,
his
culture
,
and
his
entire
development
would
secure
him
a
home
only
in
the
midst
of
civilization
and
refinement
;
the
higher
the
state
the
more
delicately
adapted
to
it
the
man
.
In
futherance
of
this
choice
,
it
so
happened
that
a
ship
lay
in
the
harbour
;
one
of
those
unquestionable
cruisers
,
frequent
at
that
day
,
which
,
without
being
absolutely
outlaws
of
the
deep
,
yet
roamed
over
its
surface
with
a
remarkable
irresponsibility
of
character
.
This
vessel
had
recently
arrived
from
the
Spanish
Main
,
and
within
three
days
'
time
would
sail
for
Bristol
.
Hester
Prynne
--
whose
vocation
,
as
a
self-enlisted
Sister
of
Charity
,
had
brought
her
acquainted
with
the
captain
and
crew
--
could
take
upon
herself
to
secure
the
passage
of
two
individuals
and
a
child
with
all
the
secrecy
which
circumstances
rendered
more
than
desirable
.
The
minister
had
inquired
of
Hester
,
with
no
little
interest
,
the
precise
time
at
which
the
vessel
might
be
expected
to
depart
.
It
would
probably
be
on
the
fourth
day
from
the
present
.
"
This
is
most
fortunate
!
"
he
had
then
said
to
himself
.
Now
,
why
the
Reverend
Mr.
Dimmesdale
considered
it
so
very
fortunate
we
hesitate
to
reveal
.
Nevertheless
--
to
hold
nothing
back
from
the
reader
--
it
was
because
,
on
the
third
day
from
the
present
,
he
was
to
preach
the
Election
Sermon
;
and
,
as
such
an
occasion
formed
an
honourable
epoch
in
the
life
of
a
New
England
Clergyman
,
he
could
not
have
chanced
upon
a
more
suitable
mode
and
time
of
terminating
his
professional
career
.
"
At
least
,
they
shall
say
of
me
,
"
thought
this
exemplary
man
,
"
that
I
leave
no
public
duty
unperformed
or
ill-performed
!
"
Sad
,
indeed
,
that
an
introspection
so
profound
and
acute
as
this
poor
minister
's
should
be
so
miserably
deceived
!
We
have
had
,
and
may
still
have
,
worse
things
to
tell
of
him
;
but
none
,
we
apprehend
,
so
pitiably
weak
;
no
evidence
,
at
once
so
slight
and
irrefragable
,
of
a
subtle
disease
that
had
long
since
begun
to
eat
into
the
real
substance
of
his
character
.
No
man
,
for
any
considerable
period
,
can
wear
one
face
to
himself
and
another
to
the
multitude
,
without
finally
getting
bewildered
as
to
which
may
be
the
true
.
The
excitement
of
Mr.
Dimmesdale
's
feelings
as
he
returned
from
his
interview
with
Hester
,
lent
him
unaccustomed
physical
energy
,
and
hurried
him
townward
at
a
rapid
pace
.
The
pathway
among
the
woods
seemed
wilder
,
more
uncouth
with
its
rude
natural
obstacles
,
and
less
trodden
by
the
foot
of
man
,
than
he
remembered
it
on
his
outward
journey
.
But
he
leaped
across
the
plashy
places
,
thrust
himself
through
the
clinging
underbush
,
climbed
the
ascent
,
plunged
into
the
hollow
,
and
overcame
,
in
short
,
all
the
difficulties
of
the
track
,
with
an
unweariable
activity
that
astonished
him
.
He
could
not
but
recall
how
feebly
,
and
with
what
frequent
pauses
for
breath
he
had
toiled
over
the
same
ground
,
only
two
days
before
.
As
he
drew
near
the
town
,
he
took
an
impression
of
change
from
the
series
of
familiar
objects
that
presented
themselves
.
It
seemed
not
yesterday
,
not
one
,
not
two
,
but
many
days
,
or
even
years
ago
,
since
he
had
quitted
them
.
There
,
indeed
,
was
each
former
trace
of
the
street
,
as
he
remembered
it
,
and
all
the
peculiarities
of
the
houses
,
with
the
due
multitude
of
gable-peaks
,
and
a
weather-cock
at
every
point
where
his
memory
suggested
one
.
Not
the
less
,
however
,
came
this
importunately
obtrusive
sense
of
change
.
The
same
was
true
as
regarded
the
acquaintances
whom
he
met
,
and
all
the
well-known
shapes
of
human
life
,
about
the
little
town
.
They
looked
neither
older
nor
younger
now
;
the
beards
of
the
aged
were
no
whiter
,
nor
could
the
creeping
babe
of
yesterday
walk
on
his
feet
to-day
;
it
was
impossible
to
describe
in
what
respect
they
differed
from
the
individuals
on
whom
he
had
so
recently
bestowed
a
parting
glance
;
and
yet
the
minister
's
deepest
sense
seemed
to
inform
him
of
their
mutability
.
A
similar
impression
struck
him
most
remarkably
a
he
passed
under
the
walls
of
his
own
church
.
The
edifice
had
so
very
strange
,
and
yet
so
familiar
an
aspect
,
that
Mr.
Dimmesdale
's
mind
vibrated
between
two
ideas
;
either
that
he
had
seen
it
only
in
a
dream
hitherto
,
or
that
he
was
merely
dreaming
about
it
now
.
This
phenomenon
,
in
the
various
shapes
which
it
assumed
,
indicated
no
external
change
,
but
so
sudden
and
important
a
change
in
the
spectator
of
the
familiar
scene
,
that
the
intervening
space
of
a
single
day
had
operated
on
his
consciousness
like
the
lapse
of
years
.
The
minister
's
own
will
,
and
Hester
's
will
,
and
the
fate
that
grew
between
them
,
had
wrought
this
transformation
.
It
was
the
same
town
as
heretofore
,
but
the
same
minister
returned
not
from
the
forest
.
He
might
have
said
to
the
friends
who
greeted
him
--
"
I
am
not
the
man
for
whom
you
take
me
!
I
left
him
yonder
in
the
forest
,
withdrawn
into
a
secret
dell
,
by
a
mossy
tree
trunk
,
and
near
a
melancholy
brook
!
Go
,
seek
your
minister
,
and
see
if
his
emaciated
figure
,
his
thin
cheek
,
his
white
,
heavy
,
pain-wrinkled
brow
,
be
not
flung
down
there
,
like
a
cast-off
garment
!
"
His
friends
,
no
doubt
,
would
still
have
insisted
with
him
--
"
Thou
art
thyself
the
man
!
"
but
the
error
would
have
been
their
own
,
not
his
.
Before
Mr.
Dimmesdale
reached
home
,
his
inner
man
gave
him
other
evidences
of
a
revolution
in
the
sphere
of
thought
and
feeling
.
In
truth
,
nothing
short
of
a
total
change
of
dynasty
and
moral
code
,
in
that
interior
kingdom
,
was
adequate
to
account
for
the
impulses
now
communicated
to
the
unfortunate
and
startled
minister
.
At
every
step
he
was
incited
to
do
some
strange
,
wild
,
wicked
thing
or
other
,
with
a
sense
that
it
would
be
at
once
involuntary
and
intentional
,
in
spite
of
himself
,
yet
growing
out
of
a
profounder
self
than
that
which
opposed
the
impulse
.
For
instance
,
he
met
one
of
his
own
deacons
.
The
good
old
man
addressed
him
with
the
paternal
affection
and
patriarchal
privilege
which
his
venerable
age
,
his
upright
and
holy
character
,
and
his
station
in
the
church
,
entitled
him
to
use
and
,
conjoined
with
this
,
the
deep
,
almost
worshipping
respect
,
which
the
minister
's
professional
and
private
claims
alike
demanded
.
Never
was
there
a
more
beautiful
example
of
how
the
majesty
of
age
and
wisdom
may
comport
with
the
obeisance
and
respect
enjoined
upon
it
,
as
from
a
lower
social
rank
,
and
inferior
order
of
endowment
,
towards
a
higher
.
Now
,
during
a
conversation
of
some
two
or
three
moments
between
the
Reverend
Mr.
Dimmesdale
and
this
excellent
and
hoary-bearded
deacon
,
it
was
only
by
the
most
careful
self-control
that
the
former
could
refrain
from
uttering
certain
blasphemous
suggestions
that
rose
into
his
mind
,
respecting
the
communion-supper
.
He
absolutely
trembled
and
turned
pale
as
ashes
,
lest
his
tongue
should
wag
itself
in
utterance
of
these
horrible
matters
,
and
plead
his
own
consent
for
so
doing
,
without
his
having
fairly
given
it
.
And
,
even
with
this
terror
in
his
heart
,
he
could
hardly
avoid
laughing
,
to
imagine
how
the
sanctified
old
patriarchal
deacon
would
have
been
petrified
by
his
minister
's
impiety
.
Again
,
another
incident
of
the
same
nature
.
Hurrying
along
the
street
,
the
Reverend
Mr.
Dimmesdale
encountered
the
eldest
female
member
of
his
church
,
a
most
pious
and
exemplary
old
dame
,
poor
,
widowed
,
lonely
,
and
with
a
heart
as
full
of
reminiscences
about
her
dead
husband
and
children
,
and
her
dead
friends
of
long
ago
,
as
a
burial-ground
is
full
of
storied
gravestones
.
Yet
all
this
,
which
would
else
have
been
such
heavy
sorrow
,
was
made
almost
a
solemn
joy
to
her
devout
old
soul
,
by
religious
consolations
and
the
truths
of
Scripture
,
wherewith
she
had
fed
herself
continually
for
more
than
thirty
years
.
And
since
Mr.
Dimmesdale
had
taken
her
in
charge
,
the
good
grandam
's
chief
earthly
comfort
--
which
,
unless
it
had
been
likewise
a
heavenly
comfort
,
could
have
been
none
at
all
--
was
to
meet
her
pastor
,
whether
casually
,
or
of
set
purpose
,
and
be
refreshed
with
a
word
of
warm
,
fragrant
,
heaven-breathing
Gospel
truth
,
from
his
beloved
lips
,
into
her
dulled
,
but
rapturously
attentive
ear
.
But
,
on
this
occasion
,
up
to
the
moment
of
putting
his
lips
to
the
old
woman
's
ear
,
Mr.
Dimmesdale
,
as
the
great
enemy
of
souls
would
have
it
,
could
recall
no
text
of
Scripture
,
nor
aught
else
,
except
a
brief
,
pithy
,
and
,
as
it
then
appeared
to
him
,
unanswerable
argument
against
the
immortality
of
the
human
soul
.
The
instilment
thereof
into
her
mind
would
probably
have
caused
this
aged
sister
to
drop
down
dead
,
at
once
,
as
by
the
effect
of
an
intensely
poisonous
infusion
.
What
he
really
did
whisper
,
the
minister
could
never
afterwards
recollect
.
