CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Hester and the Doctor

Hester told little Pearl to run down to the water to play while she talked awhile with the doctor. So the child ran quickly away to the sea. She often stopped along the way to look at her reflection in the small pools of water that gathered. Upon looking into the pools, she saw a little girl with curly dark hair smiling at her. Not realizing that it was her reflection, she would invite the child to join her at the seashore.

Meanwhile, her mother went to see the doctor.

"I would like to speak with you," said she, "something that concerns us both a great deal."

"Ah, and is it Mistress Hester that would like to speak to old Roger Chillingworth?" answered he, looking up. "You should know, Mistress Hester, that I was recently speaking with the governor about you. We were discussing your scarlet letter, and agreeing that, perhaps, the letter should be now removed from your chest. I requested that the town rulers decide that you should be allowed to remove the scarlet letter, and quickly!"

"The town rulers do not have the decision," calmly replied Hester. "If my punishment was over, the letter would fall off my chest, it would not be removed."

"Well, then, wear it, if it suits you," responded the doctor as he touched the scarlet letter on her chest.

All this while, Hester had been looking at the old man, and was shocked to see how old he had become in the past seven years. He did not just look older, but his previous calm and quiet character was gone. He now looked nervously angry. Roger Chillingworth was a man who decided to become a devil. This unhappy person had changed so greatly by spending seven years in finding his only enjoyment through discovering ways to harming his enemy.

The scarlet letter burned Hester Prynne's chest. She, too, felt guilt for the doctor's great suffering.

"What do you see in my face," asked the doctor, "that you look at so carefully?"

"Something that would make me cry. If there were any tears left in me, I would cry for your poor victim." answered she.

"Is that why you wish to speak to me, about him?" cried Roger Chillingworth, eagerly, quite delighted to discuss the topic. "I had just been thinking of that gentleman, so please speak."

"When we last spoke together," said Hester, "now seven years ago, it was your desire to keep our marriage a secret from the town. I had terrible doubts about not explaining your relationship to me to Mr Dimmesdale, but was silent because I had sworn to you that I would not tell our secret. However, since that day, no other man has been so near to him as you. You are beside him while he sleeps and while he is awake. You search deep in his heart! You cause him to die each day. In permitting this, I have acted terribly towards him!"

"What choice did you have?" asked Roger Chillingworth. "If I had declared him to be your child's father, he would have been killed immediately!"

"It would have been better so!" said Hester Prynne.

"What evil have I done to this man?" asked Roger Chillingworth again. "I have cared for him with great attention. Without my help, the man would have died after two years, given his weak mind and body. I have wasted my skills on him!"

"It would have been better that he died immediately!" said Hester Prynne.

"Yes, woman, you speak the truth!" cried old Roger Chillingworth angrily. "Better had he died immediately. He suffered more than any other man, and all in sight of his worst enemy! He has known me. He knew I was never a true friend!"

"Haven't you harmed him enough?" said Hester.

"No! No! Never!" answered the doctor with great passion. "Do you remember me, Hester, as I was nine years ago? Even then, I was old, but my life was honest and quiet. I was always faithfully interested in knowledge and my studies. I was peaceful, kind and fair."

"Yes, you were just that," said Hester.

"And what am I now?" demanded he, looking into her face, and permitting her to see the evil within him. "I am evil, and who has made me this way?"

"It was myself!" cried Hester. "It was I, not him. Why have you punished him and not me?"

"I have let the scarlet letter punish you," replied Roger Chillingworth. "If that has not punished you, then I can do no more," he said as he put his fingers on the letter, smiling.

"This scarlet letter has punished you!" answered Hester Prynne. "And now, I must admit the secret to Mr Dimmesdale. He must see your true self as his enemy."

"Woman, I could almost pity you!" said Roger Chillingworth. "I pity you, indeed; perhaps, if you had met this love before you had met with me, you would have found happiness."

"And I pity you, as well," answered Hester Prynne, "as the hatred in your heart has changed you, who was once a wise and just man!"

(end of section)