‘I shall be too cold to move soon,’ Mr Dimmesdale thought. ‘I won't even be able to walk down the steps.’ Crazy pictures passed before his eyes. “Someone will find me here in the early morning, and will run around knocking on doors. Everyone will hurry out in their night-clothes Governor Bellingham, with his buttons undone; his sister, mad Mistress Hibbins, staring with her wild eyes; and good Father Wilson too, tired after spending half the night at a death-bed. Yes, everyone in the world will come running! And who will they see? They will see their priest, half-frozen to death, covered with shame, and standing where Hester Prynne once stood!”
Now he began to laugh, loudly and wildly, unable to stop himself. Then he heard an answering laugh a child's laugh and his heart jumped. It was little Pearl.
"Pearl he cried. "Little Pearl!" Then more softly, 'Hester! Hester Prynne, are you there?
Yes, it is me," Hester Prynne replied. She sounded surprised. "lt is me, and my little Pearl”
Where have you come from, Hester?" he asked.
“From Mr Winthrop's death-bed," she said. “I”ve measured him for his burial-clothes, and I am now going home.'
"Come up here, Hester, you and little Pearl,” said the priest. “You have both been here before, but I was not with you. Come up now, and all three of us shall stand together.”
Hester silently climbed up the steps and stood on the platform holding Pearl's hand. The priest found and held the child's other hand, and immediately felt a warm, strong feeling in his heart, filling it with new life.
Pearl looked up at the priest. Will you stand here with mother and me tomorrow, Mr Dimmesdale?" she whispered.
“No, my little Pearl,” answered the priest. The moment of passionate feeling had passed. Already, he was trembling, and all his fear of public shame had returned. "I shall stand with you and your mother one day, but not tomorrow.'
“When?” Pearl asked. "What day?" She tried to pull her hand away from the priest's.
"The great judgement day," he whispered. “Then, and there, your mother and I must stand together. But not before then; not in the daylight of this world.”
Before he had finished speaking, a light appeared, far and wide in the night sky. It was almost certainly caused by a meteor, and it lit up the whole street like day. And there stood the priest, with his hand over his heart; and Hester Prynne, with the scarlet letter on her bosom; and little Pearl standing between these two, looking up at the priest with a playful smile. She pointed across the street, but he put both his hands across his chest and looked up at the sky.
However, he knew that little Pearl was pointing her finger at a man standing near the scaffold-Roger Chillingworth. Did the priest see him too? Or, in the strange unearthly light, did he see only the evil smile, the hate behind the eyes, and believe that he was seeing the Devil himself?
The meteor disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared. Mr Dimmesdale, now trembling with terror, said, "Who is that man, Hester? Do you know him? I hate him, Hester!"
She remembered her promise, and was silent.
“Who is he? Who is he?” cried Mr Dimmesdale. “Can you do nothing for me? I have a horror of the man!”
"I can tell you who he is," said little Pearl.
"Quickly, then, child,' said the priest.” “Whisper to me!” But the child whispered meaningless words into the priest's ear, and laughed.
“Why are you playing games with me” said the priest.
“You would not promise to hold my hand, and my mother's hand, here tomorrow,” replied the child.
The doctor was now by the platform. “Mr Dimmesdale!" he said. "Have you been walking in your sleep? Come, my dear friend, let me take you home.”
“How did you know I was here?” asked the priest, fearfully.
“I did not know,” said Chillingworth. “I have been with Mr Winthrop, doing what little I could for a dying man. Now I am on my way home. Come with me, please, or you will not be well enough to do your work tomorrow. You should not study so hard, good sir!”
“I will go home with you,” said Mr Dimmesdale, defeated. And, like someone waking up from an ugly dream, he followed the doctor back to their house.