THE GOVERNOR'S HALL

Hester Prynne went one day to the mansion of Governor Bellingham, with a pair of gloves which she had fringed and embroidered to his order, and which were to be worn on some great occasion of state; for, though the chances of a popular election had caused this former ruler to descend a step or two from the highest rank, he still held an honourable and influential place among the colonial magistracy.
Another and far more important reason than the delivery of a pair of embroidered gloves, impelled Hester, at this time, to seek an interview with a personage of so much power and activity in the affairs of the settlement. It had reached her ears that there was a design on the part of some of the leading inhabitants, cherishing the more rigid order of principles in religion and government, to deprive her of her child. On the supposition that Pearl, as already hinted, was of demon origin, these good people not unreasonably argued that a Christian interest in the mother's soul required them to remove such a stumbling-block from her path. If the child, on the other hand, were really capable of moral and religious growth, and possessed the elements of ultimate salvation, then, surely, it would enjoy all the fairer prospect of these advantages by being transferred to wiser and better guardianship than Hester Prynne's. Among those who promoted the design, Governor Bellingham was said to be one of the most busy. It may appear singular, and, indeed, not a little ludicrous, that an affair of this kind, which in later days would have been referred to no higher jurisdiction than that of the select men of the town, should then have been a question publicly discussed, and on which statesmen of eminence took sides. At that epoch of pristine simplicity, however, matters of even slighter public interest, and of far less intrinsic weight than the welfare of Hester and her child, were strangely mixed up with the deliberations of legislators and acts of state. The period was hardly, if at all, earlier than that of our story, when a dispute concerning the right of property in a pig not only caused a fierce and bitter contest in the legislative body of the colony, but resulted in an important modification of the framework itself of the legislature.
Full of concern, therefore—but so conscious of her own right that it seemed scarcely an unequal match between the public on the one side, and a lonely woman, backed by the sympathies of nature, on the other—Hester Prynne set forth from her solitary cottage. Little Pearl, of course, was her companion. She was now of an age to run lightly along by her mother's side, and, constantly in motion from morn till sunset, could have accomplished a much longer journey than that before her. Often, nevertheless, more from caprice than necessity, she demanded to be taken up in arms; but was soon as imperious to be let down again, and frisked onward before Hester on the grassy pathway, with many a harmless trip and tumble. We have spoken of Pearl's rich and luxuriant beauty—a beauty that shone with deep and vivid tints, a bright complexion, eyes possessing intensity both of depth and glow, and hair already of a deep, glossy brown, and which, in after years, would be nearly akin to black. There was fire in her and throughout her: she seemed the unpremeditated offshoot of a passionate moment. Her mother, in contriving the child's garb, had allowed the gorgeous tendencies of her imagination their full play, arraying her in a crimson velvet tunic of a peculiar cut, abundantly embroidered in fantasies and flourishes of gold thread. So much strength of colouring, which must have given a wan and pallid aspect to cheeks of a fainter bloom, was admirably adapted to Pearl's beauty, and made her the very brightest little jet of flame that ever danced upon the earth.
But it was a remarkable attribute of this garb, and indeed, of the child's whole appearance, that it irresistibly and inevitably reminded the beholder of the token which Hester Prynne was doomed to wear upon her bosom. It was the scarlet letter in another form: the scarlet letter endowed with life! The mother herself—as if the red ignominy were so deeply scorched into her brain that all her conceptions assumed its form—had carefully wrought out the similitude, lavishing many hours of morbid ingenuity to create an analogy between the object of her affection and the emblem of her guilt and torture. But, in truth, Pearl was the one as well as the other; and only in consequence of that identity had Hester contrived so perfectly to represent the scarlet letter in her appearance.

LA SALA DEL GOBERNADOR

UN día fue Ester a la morada del Gobernador Bellingham a llevarle un par de guantes que había ribeteado y bordado por orden suya, y que debía de usar en cierta ceremonia oficial, porque si bien no desempeñaba ya el alto puesto de antes, aun ocupaba un destino honroso é influyente en la magistratura colonial.
Pero algo más importante que la entrega de un par de guantes bordados, obligó a Ester entonces a solicitar una entrevista con un personaje de tanto poder y tan activo en los negocios de la colonia. Había llegado a sus oídos el rumor de que algunos de los principales habitantes de la población trataban de despojarla de su niña, deseosos de que imperaran más rígidos principios en materias de religión y de gobierno. Suponiendo estas buenas gentes, como ya se ha dicho, que Perla era de estirpe diabólica, creyeron que para mayor beneficio del alma de la madre, convenía quitarle ese obstáculo de su sendero; agregando, que si la niña era realmente capaz de una educación religiosa y moral, y tenía en sí los elementos de su futura salvación, gozaría indudablemente de todas estas ventajas si se la separase de su madre y se confiara su educación a persona mejor y más cuerda. Se decía también que entre los promovedores de esta idea, era el Gobernador uno de los más activos.

Parecerá singular, y hasta ridículo, que un asunto de esta naturaleza haya sido cuestión públicamente discutida, en la que tomaron parte en pro y en contra varias personas eminentes del gobierno. Pero en aquella época de prístina sencillez, negocios de menor importancia pública, y de menor trascendencia que el bienestar de Ester y de su hija, tenían cabida en las deliberaciones de los legisladores y en los actos del Estado; y hasta se refiere que una disputa relativa al derecho de propiedad de un cerdo dio margen, en una época anterior a la en que pasa nuestra historia, a debates acalorados en el cuerpo legislativo de la colonia, y ocasionó importantes modificaciones en el modo de ser de la Legislatura.
Llena, pues, de temores, aunque con tan pleno convencimiento de su derecho, que no le parecía desigual la lucha entre el público de una parte y una mujer solitaria de la otra, Ester se puso en marcha saliendo de su cabaña acompañada, como era de esperarse, de Perla. Esta había alcanzado ya una edad que la permitía correr al lado de su madre, y como estaba siempre en constante movimiento desde la mañana hasta la noche, hubiera podido hacer una jornada mucho más larga. Sin embargo, a veces, más por capricho que por necesidad, pedía que la llevaran en brazos; pero a los pocos momentos quería que la dejasen andar, y continuaba junto a Ester dando saltitos y tropezando a cada instante.