And as for the scarlet letter, I wear it for the sake of its gold thread.
Happy are you, Hester, that wear the scarlet letter openly upon your bosom!
"There stood Hester, holding little Pearl by the hand! And there was the scarlet letter on her breast!"
What did it betoken? Had seven long years, under the torture of the scarlet letter, inflicted so much of misery, and wrought out no repentance?
The child turned her eyes to the point indicated; and there lay the scarlet letter, so close upon the margin of the stream, that the gold embroidery was reflected in it.
This scarlet letter is his mark!
And there was the scarlet letter on her breast!
Come along, Madam Hester, and show your scarlet letter in the market-place!
"Hester Prynne, " said he, fixing his naturally stern regard on the wearer of the scarlet letter, "there hath been much question concerning thee, of late.
Man had marked this woman's sin by a scarlet letter, which had such potent and disastrous efficacy that no human sympathy could reach her, save it were sinful like herself.
Nor do I -- whom the scarlet letter has disciplined to truth, though it be the truth of red-hot iron entering into the soul -- nor do I perceive such advantage in his living any longer a life of ghastly emptiness, that I shall stoop to implore thy mercy.
Behold, verily, there is the woman of the scarlet letter; and, of a truth, moreover, there is the likeness of the scarlet letter running along by her side!
"Lo, the scarlet letter which Hester wears! Ye have all shuddered at it! Wherever her walk hath been- wherever,"
For, Hester, his spirit lacked the strength that could have borne up, as thine has, beneath a burden like thy scarlet letter.
The scarlet letter had not done its office.
He again extended his hand to the woman of the scarlet letter.
Had seven long years, under the torture of the scarlet letter, inflicted so much of misery, and wrought out no repentance?
He made a step nigher, and discovered the scarlet letter.
Speak out the name! That, and thy repentance, may avail to take the scarlet letter off thy breast.
"Thou knowest what is in my heart, and what are a mother's rights, and how much the stronger they are, when that mother has but her child and the scarlet letter! Look thou to it! I will not lose the child! Look to it! "
With these words, she advanced to the margin of the brook, took up the scarlet letter, and fastened it again into her bosom.
So said Hester Prynne, and glanced her sad eyes downward at the scarlet letter.
The story of the scarlet letter grew into a legend.
The days when people were made to wear a scarlet letter or were shunned after a divorce are ancient history.
Nay, from the moment when we came down the old churchsteps together, a married pair, I might have beheld the bale-fire of that scarlet letter blazing at the end of our path!
And, mother, the old dame said that this scarlet letter was the Black Man's mark on thee, and that it glows like a red flame when thou meetest him at midnight, here in the dark wood.
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