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第16章

红字-the scarlet letter(英文版)-第16章

小说: 红字-the scarlet letter(英文版) 字数: 每页4000字

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ken in thy sleep? Art thou not afraid of nightmaresand hideous dreams?〃  〃Why dost thou smile so at me?〃 inquired Hester; troubled at theexpression of his eyes。 〃Art thou like the Black Man that haunts theforest round about us? Hast thou enticed me into a bond that willprove the ruin of my soul?〃  〃Not thy soul;〃 he answered; with another smile。 〃No; not thy soul。〃                             V。                    HESTER AT HER NEEDLE。  HESTER PRYNNE'S term of confinement was now at an end。 Herprison…door was thrown open; and she came forth into the sunshine;which; falling on all alike; seemed; to her sick and morbid heart;as if meant for no other purpose than to reveal the scarlet letteron her breast。 Perhaps there was a more real torture in her firstunattended footsteps from the threshold of the prison; than even inthe procession and spectacle that have been described; where she wasmade the mon infamy; at which all mankind was summoned to point itsfinger。 Then; she was supported by an unnatural tension of the nerves;and by all the bative energy of her character; which enabled her toconvert the scene into a kind of lurid triumph。 It was; moreover; aseparate and insulated event; to occur but once in her lifetime; andto meet which; therefore; reckless of economy; she might call up thevital strength that would have sufficed for many quiet years。 The verylaw that condemned her… a giant of stern features; but with vigourto support; as well as to annihilate; in his iron arm… had held herup; through the terrible ordeal of her ignominy。 But now; with thisunattended walk from her prison…door; began the daily custom; andshe must either sustain and carry it forward by the ordinary resourcesof her nature; or sink beneath it。 She could no longer borrow from thefuture to help her through the present grief。 To…morrow would bringits own trial with it; so would the next day; and so would the next;each its own trial; and yet the very same that was now sounutterably grievous to be borne。 The days of the far…off future wouldtoil onward; still with the same burden for her to take up; and bearalong with her; but never to fling down; for the accumulating days;and added years; would pile up their misery upon the heap of shame。Throughout them all; giving up her individuality; she would bee thegeneral symbol at which the preacher and moralist might point; andin which they might vivify and embody their images of woman'sfrailty and sinful passion。 Thus the young and pure would be taught tolook at her; with the scarlet letter flaming on her breast… at her;the child of honourable parents… at her; the mother of a babe; thatwould hereafter be a woman… at her; who had once been innocent… as thefigure; the body; the reality of sin。 And over her grave; the infamythat she must carry thither would be her only monument。  It may seem marvellous; that; with the world before her… kept byno restrictive clause of her condemnation within the limits of thePuritan settlement; so remote and so obscure… free to return to herbirthplace; or to any other European land; and there hide hercharacter and identity under a new exterior; as pletely as ifemerging into another state of being… and having also the passes ofthe dark; inscrutable forest open to her; where the wildness of hernature might assimilate itself with a people whose customs and lifewere alien from the law that had condemned her… it may seemmarvellous; that this woman should still call that place her home;where; and where only; she must needs be the type of shame。 Butthere is a fatality; a feeling so irresistible and inevitable thatit has the force of doom; which almost invariably pels human beingsto linger around and haunt; ghost…like; the spot where some greatand marked event has given the colour to their lifetime; and still themore irresistibly; the darker the tinge that saddens it。 Her sin;her ignominy; were the roots which she had struck into the soil。 Itwas as if a new birth; with stronger assimilations than the first; hadconverted the forest…land; still so uncongenial to every other pilgrimand wanderer; into Hester Prynne's wild and dreary; but life…longhome。 All other scenes of earth… even that village of rural England;where happy infancy and stainless maidenhood seemed yet to be in hermother's keeping; like garments put off long ago… were foreign to her;in parison。 The chain that bound her here was of iron links; andgalling to her inmost soul; but could never be broken。  It might be; too… doubtless it was so; although she hid the secretfrom herself; and grew pale whenever it struggled out of her heart;like a serpent from its hole… it might be that another feeling kepther within the scene and pathway that had been so fatal。 There dwelt;there trode the feet of one with whom she deemed herself connectedin a union; that; unrecognised on earth; would bring them togetherbefore the bar of final judgment; and make that theirmarriage…altar; for a joint futurity of endless retribution。 Overand over again; the tempter of souls had thrust this idea uponHester's contemplation; and laughed at the passionate and desperatejoy 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 wo

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