CHAPTER FOUR

The Interview

After her return to the prison, Hester Prynne became quite nervous. During the night, the prison guard called for a doctor to see her, as she looked rather ill. The stranger she had noticed during her punishment on the platform came, having studied medicine in England, as well as traditional medicinal herbs and roots of the American Indians, during his stay with them before arriving in the town.

The stranger, who Hester had stared at so closely while standing on the platform with her child, was staying in the prison, as well, but not for punishment. Rather, he had arrived that day in the town and had no other place to go. His name was announced as Roger Chillingworth. The prison guard led him into Hester's small room, and remained for a moment, astonished at the silence in the room after the stranger's entrance. Hester Prynne had immediately become as quiet as death, although the child continued to cry.

"Please, friend, leave me alone with my patient," said the doctor. "Believe me, Mistress Prynne will soon be more agreeable to the town leaders than before."

"If you can accomplish that," answered the guard, "you are certainly a man of skill!"

The prison guard then left the doctor with his two patients. He first examined the child, who was greatly upset, crying loudly.

"I have studied herbs and roots as medicine for the past year with the American Indians who kept me with them, refusing to allow me to leave for quite some time. Here, woman! The child is yours—she is not mine—neither will she recognize my voice as her father's. Give her this medicine with your own hands."

"Are you punishing me by making my child suffer with this treatment?" whispered she.

"Foolish woman!" responded the doctor. "This medicine is good, and if it were my child—my own, as well as yours—I would give her the medicine."

She still refused to give the baby the medicine. He then took the baby in his arms and gave the treatment. It soon proved to help the child a great deal. In a few moments, the child fell asleep peacefully. The doctor then began to calmly examine Hester.

"I have no medicine to take away your suffering, but this will help you to calm yourself."

She then looked at him, with doubt in her eyes.

"I have thought of death," said she, "I have wished for it. Yet, if this cup of medicine will give me death, I beg you to take it away."

"Drink, then," replied he, with calm coldness. "Do you know me so little, Hester Prynne? I believe your punishment will let you suffer more than in death," he said as he touched her scarlet letter. "Live, therefore, and suffer the punishment."

Hester Prynne then drank the medicine quickly, and went to sit next to her sleeping child.

"I will not ask you the reason for your grand mistake. It was my foolishness in leaving you here alone, and your own weakness. Already an old man, I am; how could I have thought that my great amount of knowledge could attract a young girl with so much beauty and life! I should have known that you could not love me, misshapen from my birth. I should have seen that scarlet letter at the end of our path as we came down the church steps together, after being married. Men call me wise, but I was not wise when I came to this settlement and the first object I saw was you, Hester Prynne, standing on that platform with a child."

"You know," said Hester quietly, "that I told you I felt no love for you when we were married."

"True," replied he. "I was foolish! I have said it. But I did not believe you until I saw you standing on that platform. I was lonely for so long and only wished to be with someone. I came to be with you, to make a family together."

"I have hurt you greatly," whispered Hester.

"We have hurt each other," answered he. "I was first wrong when I tried to force a young girl to fall in love with my old, misshapen self. Therefore, I have no plans to hurt you any further. But Hester, the man who has hurt us both still lives! Who is he?"

"Do not ask me!" replied Hester Prynne. "You shall never know!"

"Never," he said with a smile. "Never know him! Believe me, Hester, I will find that mysterious man! You may keep the secret from the rest of the town, but I will discover the truth! Do not fear, as I do not plan to mention my discovery to anyone else, but I must know who has ruined us both. He shall be mine!" declared the doctor, then paused. "You were once my wife, but as you have kept the name of your lover a secret, I wish that you never call me your husband again. Tell no one that we were once married. You belong to me, Hester Prynne. My home is where you are, and where he is. I shall discover his name!"

"Why do you wish to keep our marriage a secret. Why not announce yourself as my husband, abandon me immediately?"

"I do not wish to feel the dishonor of the husband of a dishonest woman. Do not speak that I was once your husband. Rather, declare that your husband has already died!"

"I will keep your secret as I have kept his," said Hester.

"Swear it!" he exclaimed.

And she swore to keep the secret of their marriage.

"And now, Mistress Prynne," said old Roger Chillingworth, as was his new name in Boston, "I will leave you alone; alone with your child, and the scarlet letter! Must you wear the letter as you sleep? Are you afraid of nightmares and terrible dreams?"

"Why do you smile," she asked, worried at seeing his frightening smile. "Are you the Black Man that will terrorize us? Will you soon ruin my soul?"

"Not your soul," he answered, with another smile. "No, not yours!"

(end of section)