“Was ever such a child!” observed Hester aside to the minister.  “Oh, I have much to tell thee about her!  But, in very truth, she is right as regards this hateful token.  I must bear its torture yet a little longer—­only a few days longer—­until we shall have left this region, and look back hither as to a land which we have dreamed of.  The forest cannot hide it!  The mid-ocean shall take it from my hand, and swallow it up for ever!”

With these words she advanced to the margin of the brook, took up the scarlet letter, and fastened it again into her bosom.  Hopefully, but a moment ago, as Hester had spoken of drowning it in the deep sea, there was a sense of inevitable doom upon her as she thus received back this deadly symbol from the hand of fate.  She had flung it into infinite space! she had drawn an hour’s free breath! and here again was the scarlet misery glittering on the old spot!  So it ever is, whether thus typified or no, that an evil deed invests itself with the character of doom.  Hester next gathered up the heavy tresses of her hair and confined them beneath her cap.  As if there were a withering spell in the sad letter, her beauty, the warmth and richness of her womanhood, departed like fading sunshine, and a gray shadow seemed to fall across her.

When the dreary change was wrought, she extended her hand to Pearl.

“Dost thou know thy mother now, child?”, asked she, reproachfully, but with a subdued tone.  “Wilt thou come across the brook, and own thy mother, now that she has her shame upon her—­now that she is sad?”

“Yes; now I will!” answered the child, bounding across the brook, and clasping Hester in her arms “Now thou art my mother indeed! and I am thy little Pearl!”

In a mood of tenderness that was not usual with her, she drew down her mother’s head, and kissed her brow and both her cheeks.  But then—­by a kind of necessity that always impelled this child to alloy whatever comfort she might chance to give with a throb of anguish—­Pearl put up her mouth and kissed the scarlet letter, too.

“That was not kind!” said Hester.  “When thou hast shown me a little love, thou mockest me!”

“Why doth the minister sit yonder?” asked Pearl.

“He waits to welcome thee,” replied her mother.  “Come thou, and entreat his blessing!  He loves thee, my little Pearl, and loves thy mother, too.  Wilt thou not love him?  Come he longs to greet thee!”

“Doth he love us?” said Pearl, looking up with acute intelligence into her mother’s face.  “Will he go back with us, hand in hand, we three together, into the town?”

“Not now, my child,” answered Hester.  “But in days to come he will walk hand in hand with us.  We will have a home and fireside of our own; and thou shalt sit upon his knee; and he will teach thee many things, and love thee dearly.  Thou wilt love him—­wilt thou not?”

“And will he always keep his hand over his heart?” inquired Pearl.