| THE ELF-CHILD AND THE MINISTER "Sayest thou so?" cried the Governor. "Nay, we might have judged that such a child's mother must needs be a scarlet woman, and a worthy type of her of Babylon! But she comes at a good time, and we will look into this matter forthwith."
Governor Bellingham stepped through the window into the hall, followed by his three guests.
"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. The point hath been weightily discussed, whether we, that are of authority and influence, do well discharge our consciences by trusting an immortal soul, such as there is in yonder child, to the guidance of one who hath stumbled and fallen amid the pitfalls of this world. Speak thou, the child's own mother! Were it not, thinkest thou, for thy little one's temporal and eternal welfare that she be taken out of thy charge, and clad soberly, and disciplined strictly, and instructed in the truths of heaven and earth? What canst thou do for the child in this kind?"
"I can teach my little Pearl what I have learned from this!" answered Hester Prynne, laying her finger on the red token.
"Woman, it is thy badge of shame!" replied the stern magistrate. "It is because of the stain which that letter indicates that we would transfer thy child to other hands."
"Nevertheless," said the mother, calmly, though growing more pale, "this badge hath taught me—it daily teaches me—it is teaching me at this moment—lessons whereof my child may be the wiser and better, albeit they can profit nothing to myself."
"We will judge warily," said Bellingham, "and look well what we
are about to do. Good Master Wilson, I pray you, examine this
Pearl—since that is her name—and see whether she hath had such
Christian nurture as befits a child of her age."
The old minister seated himself in an arm-chair and made an effort to draw Pearl betwixt his knees. But the child, unaccustomed to the touch or familiarity of any but her mother, escaped through the open window, and stood on the upper step, looking like a wild tropical bird of rich plumage, ready to take flight into the upper air. Mr. Wilson, not a little astonished at this outbreak—for he was a grandfatherly sort of personage, and usually a vast favourite with children—essayed, however, to proceed with the examination.
"Pearl," said he, with great solemnity, "thou must take heed to instruction, that so, in due season, thou mayest wear in thy bosom the pearl of great price. Canst thou tell me, my child, who made thee?"
Now Pearl knew well enough who made her, for Hester Prynne, the daughter of a pious home, very soon after her talk with the child about her Heavenly Father, had begun to inform her of those truths which the human spirit, at whatever stage of immaturity, imbibes with such eager interest. Pearl, therefore—so large were the attainments of her three years' lifetime—could have borne a fair examination in the New England Primer, or the first column of the Westminster Catechisms, although unacquainted with the outward form of either of those celebrated works. But that perversity, which all children have more or less of, and of which little Pearl had a tenfold portion, now, at the most inopportune moment, took thorough possession of her, and closed her lips, or impelled her to speak words amiss. After putting her finger in her mouth, with many ungracious refusals to answer good Mr. Wilson's question, the child finally announced that she had not been made at all, but had been plucked by her mother off the bush of wild roses that grew by the prison-door.
This phantasy was probably suggested by the near proximity of the Governor's red roses, as Pearl stood outside of the window, together with her recollection of the prison rose-bush, which she had ed in coming hither.
Old Roger Chillingworth, with a smile on his face, whispered something in the young clergyman's ear. Hester Prynne looked at the man of skill, and even then, with her fate hanging in the balance, was startled to perceive what a change had come over his features—how much uglier they were, how his dark complexion seemed to have grown duskier, and his figure more misshapen—since the days when she had familiarly known him. She met his eyes for an instant, but was immediately constrained to give all her attention to the scene now going forward. |
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LA NIA DUENDE Y EL MINISTRO —Eso dices? exclam el Gobernador. S, deberamos haber pensado que la madre de tal nia tena que ser una mujer escarlata, y un tipo digno de Babilonia. Pero a buen tiempo llega, y trataremos de este asunto inmediatamente.
El Gobernador entr en la antecmara seguido de sus tres huspedes.
—Ester Prynne, dijo clavando la mirada naturalmente severa en la portadora de la letra escarlata, en estos das se ha hablado mucho de t. Hemos discutido con toda calma y seso, si nosotros, que somos personas de autoridad e influencia, cumplimos con nuestro deber confiando la direccin y gua de un alma inmortal, como la de esta criatura, a quien ha tropezado y cado en medio de los lazos y redes del mundo. Habla, t que eres la madre de esta nia. No crees que sera mejor, tanto para el bienestar temporal como para la vida eterna de tu pequeuela, que se te prive de su cuidado, y que vestida de una manera menos vistosa, se la eduque en la obediencia y se la instruya en las verdades del cielo y de la tierra? Qu puedes hacer en pro de tu nia en este particular?
—Yo puedo instruir a mi hija segn la enseanza que he recibido de esto,—respondi Ester tocando con el dedo la letra escarlata.
—Mujer, esa es tu insignia de vergenza, replic el severo magistrado. Precisamente en consecuencia de la falta que indica esa letra, deseamos que tu hija pase al cuidado de otras manos.
—Sin embargo, dijo la madre tranquilamente, aunque volvindose cada vez ms plida, esta insignia me ha dado, y me da diariamente, y hasta en este momento, lecciones que harn a mi hija ms cuerda y mejor, aunque para m no sean ya de provecho.
—Ahora lo sabremos, dijo el Gobernador, y decidiremos lo que hay que hacer. Mi buen Seor Wilson, os ruego que examinis a esta Perla, pues tal es su nombre, y veis si tiene la instruccin cristiana que conviene a una nia de su edad. El anciano eclesistico se sent en un silln e hizo un esfuerzo para atraer a Perla entre sus rodillas. Pero la nia, acostumbrada solamente al tacto familiar de su madre y no al de otra persona, se escap por la ventana abierta y se plant en el escaln ms alto, pareciendo entonces un pjaro tropical silvestre, de brillante plumaje, dispuesto a emprender el vuelo en los espacios. El Sr. Wilson, no poco sorprendido de esto, pues era una especie de patriarca favorito de los nios, trat sin embargo de proceder al examen.
—Perla, le dijo con gran solemnidad, tienes que recibir instruccin para que, a su debido tiempo, logres llevar en tu seno una perla de gran precio. Puedes decir, hija ma, quin te ha creado?
Perla saba perfectamente qu responder, porque siendo Ester la hija de una familia piadosa, poco despus de la conversacin que haba tenido con su nia acerca de su Padre Celestial, haba comenzado a hablarle de esas verdades que el espritu humano, cualquiera que sea su estado de desarrollo, oye con intenso inters. Por lo tanto Perla, aunque solo contaba tres aos de edad, podra haber sufrido con buen xito un examen en algunas materias religiosas; pero la perversidad ms o menos comn a todos los nios, y de la cual la chicuela tena una buena dosis, se apoder de ella en el momento ms inoportuno, y la hizo cerrar los labios o proferir palabras que no venan al caso. Despus de llevarse el dedo a la boca, y de muchas negativas de responder a las preguntas del buen Sr. Wilson, la nia finalmente anunci que no haba sido creada por nadie, sino que su madre la haba recogido en un rosal silvestre que creca junto a la puerta de la crcel. Esta respuesta fantstica le fue probablemente sugerida por la proximidad de los rosales del Gobernador, que tena a la vista, y por el recuerdo del rosal silvestre de la crcel, junto al cual haba pasado al venir a la morada de Bellingham. El viejo Roger Chillingworth, con una sonrisa en los labios, murmur unas cuantas palabras al odo del joven eclesistico. Ester dirigi una mirada al hombre de ciencia, y a pesar de que su destino estaba colgando de un hilo, se qued sorprendida al notar el cambio verificado en las facciones de Roger, que se haba vuelto mucho ms feo, su cutis ms atezado, y su figura peor formada que en los tiempos en que le haba conocido ms familiarmente. Sus miradas se cruzaron un instante, pero inmediatamente tuvo que prestar toda su atencin a lo que estaba pasando respecto a su hija. |
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