all its branches, but with continual
reference to the ignominious letter. So forcibly
did he dwell upon this symbol, for the hour
or more during which his periods were rolling
over the people's heads, that it assumed new
terrors in their imagination, and seemed to
derive its scarlet hue from the flames of
the infernal pit. Hester Prynne, meanwhile,
kept her place upon the pedestal of shame,
with glazed eyes, and an air of weary indifference.
She had borne that morning all that nature
could endure; and as her temperament was not
of the order that escapes from too intense
suffering by a swoon, her spirit could only
shelter itself beneath a stony crust of insensibility,
while the faculties of animal life remained
entire. In this state, the voice of the preacher
thundered remorselessly, but unavailingly,
upon her ears. The infant, during the latter
portion of herordeal, pierced the air with
its wailings and screams; she strove to hush
it mechanically, but seemed scarcely to sympathise
with its trouble. With the same hard demeanour,
she was led back to prison, and vanished from
the public gaze within its iron-clamped portal.
It was whispered by those who peered after
her that the scarlet letter threw a lurid
gleam along the dark passage-way of the interior.
