It was a
forcible type of the moral solitude in which the scarlet letter
enveloped its fated wearer; partly by her own reserve, and
partly by the instinctive, though no longer so unkindly,
withdrawal of her fellow-creatures. Now, if never before, it
answered a good purpose by enabling Hester and the seaman to
speak together without risk of being overheard; and so changed
was Hester Prynne's repute before the public, that the matron in
town, most eminent for rigid morality, could not have held such
intercourse with less result of scandal than herself.
"So, mistress," said the mariner, "I must bid the steward make
ready one more berth than you bargained for! No fear of scurvy
or ship fever this voyage. What with the ship's surgeon and this
other doctor, our only danger will be from drug or pill; more by
token, as there is a lot of apothecary's stuff aboard, which I
traded for with a Spanish vessel."
"What mean you?" inquired Hester, startled more than she
permitted to appear. "Have you another passenger?"
"Why, know you not," cried the shipmaster, "that this physician
here--Chillingworth he calls himself--is minded to try my
cabin-fare with you? Ay, ay, you must have known it; for he
tells me he is of your party, and a close friend to the
gentleman you spoke of--he that is in peril from these sour old
Puritan rulers.
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