The Scarlet Letter

But the sea in those old times heaved, swelled, and foamed very

much at its own will, or subject only to the tempestuous wind,

with hardly any attempts at regulation by human law. The

buccaneer on the wave might relinquish his calling and become at

once if he chose, a man of probity and piety on land; nor, even

in the full career of his reckless life, was he regarded as a

personage with whom it was disreputable to traffic or casually

associate. Thus the Puritan elders in their black cloaks,

starched bands, and steeple-crowned hats, smiled not

unbenignantly at the clamour and rude deportment of these jolly

seafaring men; and it excited neither surprise nor animadversion

when so reputable a citizen as old Roger Chillingworth, the

physician, was seen to enter the market-place in close and

familiar talk with the commander of the questionable vessel.

The latter was by far the most showy and gallant figure, so far

as apparel went, anywhere to be seen among the multitude. He

wore a profusion of ribbons on his garment, and gold lace on his

hat, which was also encircled by a gold chain, and surmounted

with a feather. There was a sword at his side and a sword-cut on

his forehead, which, by the arrangement of his hair, he seemed

anxious rather to display than hide. A landsman could hardly

have worn this garb and shown this face, and worn and shown them

both with such a galliard air, without undergoing stern question

before a magistrate, and probably incurring a fine or

imprisonment, or perhaps an exhibition in the stocks. As

regarded the shipmaster, however, all was looked upon as

pertaining to the character, as to a fish his glistening scales.

After parting from the physician, the commander of the Bristol

ship strolled idly through the market-place; until happening to

approach the spot where Hester Prynne was standing, he appeared

to recognise, and did not hesitate to address her. As was

usually the case wherever Hester stood, a small vacant area--a

sort of magic circle--had formed itself about her, into which,

though the people were elbowing one another at a little

distance, none ventured or felt disposed to intrude. 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."