The Scarlet Letter

But Hester could not resolve the query, being herself in a

dismal labyrinth of doubt. She remembered--betwixt a smile and a

shudder--the talk of the neighbouring townspeople, who, seeking

vainly elsewhere for the child's paternity, and observing some

of her odd attributes, had given out that poor little Pearl was

a demon offspring: such as, ever since old Catholic times, had

occasionally been seen on earth, through the agency of their

mother's sin, and to promote some foul and wicked purpose.

Luther, according to the scandal of his monkish enemies, was a

brat of that hellish breed; nor was Pearl the only child to whom

this inauspicious origin was assigned among the New England

Puritans.