The Scarlet Letter

"All this, and more," said Hester.

"And what am I now?" demanded he, looking into her face, and

permitting the whole evil within him to be written on his

features. "I have already told thee what I am--a fiend! Who made

me so?"

"It was myself," cried Hester, shuddering. "It was I, not less

than he. Why hast thou not avenged thyself on me?"

"I have left thee to the scarlet letter," replied Roger

Chillingworth. "If that has not avenged me, I can do no more!"

He laid his finger on it with a smile.

"It has avenged thee," answered Hester Prynne.

"I judged no less," said the physician. "And now what wouldst

thou with me touching this man?"

"I must reveal the secret," answered Hester, firmly. "He must

discern thee in thy true character. What may be the result I

know not. But this long debt of confidence, due from me to him,

whose bane and ruin I have been, shall at length be paid. So far

as concerns the overthrow or preservation of his fair fame and

his earthly state, and perchance his life, he is in my hands.

Nor do I--whom the scarlet letter has disciplined to truth,

though it be the truth of red-hot iron entering into the

soul--nor do I perceive such advantage in his living any longer

a life of ghastly emptiness, that I shall stoop to implore thy

mercy. Do with him as thou wilt! There is no good for him, no

good for me, no good for thee. There is no good for little

Pearl. There is no path to guide us out of this dismal maze."

"Woman, I could well-nigh pity thee," said Roger Chillingworth,

unable to restrain a thrill of admiration too, for there was a

quality almost majestic in the despair which she expressed.

"Thou hadst great elements. Peradventure, hadst thou met earlier

with a better love than mine, this evil had not been. I pity

thee, for the good that has been wasted in thy nature."

"And I thee," answered Hester Prynne, "for the hatred that has

transformed a wise and just man to a fiend! Wilt thou yet purge

it out of thee, and be once more human? If not for his sake,

then doubly for thine own! Forgive, and leave his further

retribution to the Power that claims it! I said, but now, that

there could be no good event for him, or thee, or me, who are

here wandering together in this gloomy maze of evil, and

stumbling at every step over the guilt wherewith we have strewn

our path. It is not so! There might be good for thee, and thee

alone, since thou hast been deeply wronged and hast it at thy

will to pardon. Wilt thou give up that only privilege? Wilt thou

reject that priceless benefit?"