person who had so cultivated
his mental part that it could not fail to
mould the physical to itself and become manifest
by unmistakable tokens. Although, by a seemingly
careless arrangement of his heterogeneous
garb, he had endeavoured to conceal or abate
the peculiarity, it was sufficiently evident
to Hester Prynne that one of this man's shoulders
rose higher than the other. Again, at the
first instant of perceiving that thin visage,
and the slight deformity of the figure, she
pressed her infant to her bosom with so convulsive
a force that the poor babe uttered another
cry of pain. But the mother did not seem to
hear it.
At his arrival in the market-place, and some
time before she saw him, the stranger had
bent his eyes on Hester Prynne. It was carelessly
at first, like a man chiefly accustomed to
look inward, and to whomexternal matters
are of little value and import, unless they
bear relation to something within his mind.
Very soon, however, his look became keen and
penetrative. A writhing horror twisted itself
across his features, like a snake gliding
swiftly over them, and making one little pause,
with all its wreathed intervolutions in open
sight. His face darkened with some powerful
emotion, which, nevertheless, he so instantaneously
controlled by an effort of his will, that,
save at a single moment, its expression might
have passed for calmness. After a brief space,
the convulsion grew almost imperceptible,
and finally subsided into the depths of his
nature. When he found the eyes of Hester Prynne
fastened on his own, and saw that she appeared
to recognize him, he slowly and calmly raised
his finger, made a gesture with it in the
air, and laid it on his lips.
Then touching the