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红字-the scarlet letter(英文版)-第15部分

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atejoy with which she seized; and then strove to cast it from her。 Shebarely looked the idea in the face; and hastened to bar it in itsdungeon。 What she pelled herself to believe… what; finally; shereasoned upon; as her motive for continuing a resident of New England…was half a truth; and half a self…delusion。 Here; she said to herself;had been the scene of her guilt; and here should be the scene of herearthly punishment; and so; perchance; the torture of her dailyshame would at length purge her soul; and work out another purity thanthat which she had lost; more saint…like; because the result ofmartyrdom。  Hester Prynne; therefore; did not flee。 On the outskirts of thetown; within the verge of the peninsula; but not in close vicinityto any other habitation; there was a small thatched cottage。 It hadbeen built by an earlier settler; and abandoned; because the soilabout it was too sterile for cultivation; while its parativeremoteness put it out of the sphere of that social activity whichalready marked the habits of the emigrants。 It stood on the shore;looking across a basin of the sea at the forest…covered hills; towardsthe west。 A clump of scrubby trees; such as alone grew on thepeninsula; did not so much conceal the cottage from view; as seem todenote that here was some object which would fain have been; or atleast ought to be; concealed。 In this little; lonesome dwelling;with some slender means that she possessed; and by the license ofthe magistrates; who still kept an inquisitorial watch over her;Hester established herself; with her infant child。 A mystic shadowof suspicion immediately attached itself to the spot。 Children; tooyoung to prehend wherefore this woman should be shut out from thesphere of human charities; would creep nigh enough to behold herplying her needle at the cottage…window; or standing in the doorway;or labouring in her little garden; or ing forth along the pathwaythat led townward; and; discerning the scarlet letter on her breast;would scamper off with a strange; contagious fear。  Lonely as was Hester's situation; and without a friend on earthwho dared to show himself; she; however; incurred no risk of want。 Shepossessed an art that sufficed; even in a land that affordedparatively little scope for its exercise; to supply food for herthriving infant and herself。 It was the art… then; as now; almostthe only one within a woman's grasp… of needlework。 She bore on herbreast; in the curiously embroidered letter; a specimen of herdelicate and imaginative skill; of which the dames of a court mightgladly have availed themselves; to add the richer and more spiritualadornment of human ingenuity to their fabrics of silk and gold。Here; indeed; in the sable simplicity that generally characterised thePuritanic modes of dress; there might be an infrequent call for thefiner productions of her handiwork。 Yet the taste of the age;demanding whatever was elaborate in positions of this kind; did notfail to extend its influence over our stern progenitors; who hadcast behind them so many fashions which it might seem harder todispense with。 Public ceremonies; such as ordinations; theinstallation of magistrates; and all that could give majesty to theforms in which a new government manifested itself to the people; were;as a matter of policy; marked by a stately and well…conductedceremonial; and a sombre; but yet a studied magnificence。 Deepruffs; painfully wrought bands; and gorgeously embroidered gloves wereall deemed necessary to the official state of men assuming the reinsof power; and were readily allowed to individuals dignified by rank orwealth; even while sumptuary laws forbade these and similarextravagances to the plebeian order。 In the array of funerals; too…whether for the apparel of the dead body; or to typify; by manifoldemblematic…devices of sable cloth and snowy lawn; the sorrow of thesurvivors… there was a frequent and characteristic demand for suchlabour as Hester Prynne could supply。 Baby…linen… for babies then worerobes of state…  afforded still another possibility of toil andemolument。  By degrees; nor very slowly; her handiwork became what would nowbe termed the fashion。 Whether from miseration for a woman of somiserable a destiny; or from the morbid curiosity that gives afictitious value even to mon or worthless things; or by whateverother intangible circumstance was then; as now; sufficient tobestow; on some persons; what others might seek in vain; or becauseHester really filled a gap which must otherwise have remainedvacant; it is certain that she had ready and fairly requitedemployment for as many hours as she saw fit to occupy with her needle。Vanity; it may be; chose to mortify itself; by putting on; forceremonials of pomp and state; the garments that had been wrought byher sinful hands。 Her needle…work was seen on the ruff of theGovernor; military men wore it on their scarfs; and the minister onhis hand; it decked the baby's little cap; it was shut up; to bemildewed and moulder away; in the coffins of the dead。 But it is notrecorded that; in a single instance; her skill was called in aid toembroider the white veil which was to cover the pure blushes of abride。 The exception indicated the ever relentless vigour with whichsociety frowned upon her sin。  Hester sought not to acquire anything beyond a subsistence; of theplainest and most ascetic description; for herself; and a simpleabundance for her child。 Her own dress was of the coarsest materialsand the most sombre hue; with only that one ornament… the scarletletter… which it was her doom to wear。 The child's attire; on theother hand; was distinguished by a fanciful; or; we might rathersay; a fantastic ingenuity; which served; indeed; to heighten the airycharm that early began to develop itself in the little girl; but whichappeared to have also a deeper meaning。 We may speak further of ithereafter。 Except for that small expenditure in the decoration ofher infant; Hester bestowed all her superfluous means in charity; onwretches less miserable than herself; and who not infrequentlyinsulted the hand that fed them。 Much of the time; which she mightreadily have applied to the better efforts of her art; she employed inmaking coarse garments for the poor。 It is probable that there wasan idea of penance in this mode of occupation; and that she offered upa real sacrifice of enjoyment; in devoting so many hours to suchrude handiwork。 She had in her nature a rich; voluptuous; Orientalcharacteristic… a taste for the gorgeously beautiful; which; save inthe exquisite productions of her needle; found nothing else; in allthe possibilities of her life; to exercise itself upon。 Women derive apleasure; inprehensible to the other sex; from the delicate toil ofthe needle。 To Hester Prynne it might have been a mode ofexpressing; and therefore soothing; the passion of her life。 Likeall other joys; she rejected it as sin。 This morbid meddling ofconscience with an immaterial matter betokened; it is to be feared; nogenuine and steadfast penitence; but something doubtful; somethingthat might be deeply wrong; beneath。  In this manner; Hester Prynne came to have a part to perform inthe world。 With her native energy of character; and rare capacity;it could not entirely cast her off; although it had set a mark uponher; more intolerable to a woman's heart than that which branded thebrow of Cain。 In all her intercourse with society; however; therewas nothing that made her feel as if she belonged to it。 Everygesture; every word; and even the silence of those with whom shecame in contact; implied; and often expressed; that she wasbanished; and as much alone as if she inhabited another sphere; ormunicated with the mon nature by other organs and senses thanthe rest of human kind。 She stood apart from moral interests; yetclose beside them; like a ghost that revisits the familiar fireside;and can no longer make itself seen or felt; no more smile with thehousehold joy; nor mourn with the kindred sorrow; or; should itsucceed in manifesting its forbidden sympathy; awakening only terrorand horrible repugnance。 These emotions; in fact; and its bitterestscorn besides; seemed to be the sole portion that she retained inthe universal heart。 It was not an age of delicacy; and herposition; although she understood it well; and was in little danger offorgetting it; was often brought before her vivid self…perception;like a new anguish; by the rudest touch upon the tenderest spot。 Thepoor; as we have already said; whom she sought out to be the objectsof her bounty; often reviled the hand that was stretched forth tosuccour them。 Dames of elevated rank; likewise; whose doors sheentered in the way of her occupation; were accustomed to distildrops of bitterness into her heart; sometimes through that alchemyof quiet malice; by which women can concoct a subtile poison fromordinary trifles; and sometimes; also; by a coarser expression; thatfell upon the sufferer's defenceless breast like a rough blow uponan ulcerated wound。 Hester had schooled herself long and well; shenever responded to these attacks; save by a flush of crimson that roseirrepressibly over her pale cheek; and again subsided into thedepths of her bosom。 She was patient… a martyr; indeed… but sheforbore to pray for her enemies; lest; in spite of her forgivingaspirations; the words of the blessing should stubbornly twistthemselves into a curse。  Continually; and in a thousand other ways; did she feel theinnumerable throbs of anguish that had been so cunningly contrived forher by the undying; the ever…active sentence of the Puritantribunal。 Clergymen paused in the street to address words ofexhortation; that brought a crowd; with its mingled grin and frown;around the poor; sinful woman。 If she entered a church; trusting toshare the Sabbath smile of the Universal Father; it was often hermishap to find herself the text of the discourse。 She grew to have adread of children; for they had imbibed from their parents a vagueidea of something horrible in this dreary woman; gliding silentlythrough the town; with never any panion but one only child。Therefore; first allowing her to pass; they pursued her at adistance with shrill cries; and the utterance of a word that had nodistinct purport to their own minds; but was none the less terrible toher; as proceeding from lips that babb
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