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第17部分

红字-the scarlet letter(英文版)-第17部分

小说: 红字-the scarlet letter(英文版) 字数: 每页4000字

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task was beyond her skill。 Aftertesting both smiles and frowns; and proving that neither mode oftreatment possessed any calculable influence; Hester was ultimatelypelled to stand aside; and permit the child to be swayed by her ownimpulses。 Physical pulsion or restraint was effectual; of course;while it lasted。 As to any other kind of discipline; whether addressedto her mind or heart; little Pearl might or might not be within itsreach; in accordance with the caprice that ruled the moment。 Hermother; while Pearl was yet an infant; grew acquainted with acertain peculiar look; that warned her when it would be labourthrown away to insist; persuade; or plead。 It was a look sointelligent; yet inexplicable; so perverse; sometimes so malicious;but generally acpanied by a wild flow of spirits; that Hester couldnot help questioning; at such moments; whether Pearl was a humanchild。 She seemed rather an airy sprite; which; after playing itsfantastic sports for a little while upon the cottage…floor; would flitaway with a mocking smile。 Whenever that look appeared in her wild;bright; deeply black eyes; it invested her with a strange remotenessand intangibility; it was as if she were hovering in the air and mightvanish; like a glimmering light; that es we know not whence; andgoes we know not whither。 Beholding it; Hester was constrained to rushtowards the child… to pursue the little elf in the flight which sheinvariably began… to snatch her to her bosom; with a close pressureand earnest kisses… not so much from overflowing love; as to assureherself that Pearl was flesh and blood; and not utterly delusive。But Pearl's laugh; when she was caught; though full of merriment andmusic; made her mother more doubtful than before。  Heart…smitten at this bewildering and baffling spell; that sooften came between herself and her sole treasure; whom she hadbought so dear; and who was all her world; Hester sometimes burst intopassionate tears。 Then; perhaps… for there was no foreseeing how itmight affect her… Pearl would frown; and clench her little fist; andharden her small features into a stern; unsympathising look ofdiscontent。 Not seldom; she would laugh anew; and louder thanbefore; like a thing incapable and unintelligent of human sorrow。Or… but this more rarely happened… she would be convulsed with arage of grief; and sob out her love for her mother; in broken words;and seem intent on proving that she had a heart; by breaking it。 YetHester was hardly safe in confiding herself to that gustytenderness; it passed; as suddenly as it came。 Brooding over all thesematters; the mother felt like one who has evoked a spirit; but; bysome irregularity in the process of conjuration; has failed to win themaster…word that should control this new and inprehensibleintelligence。 Her only real fort was when the child lay in theplacidity of sleep。 Then she was sure of her; and tasted hours ofquiet; sad; delicious happiness; until… perhaps with that perverseexpression glimmering from beneath her opening lids… little Pearlawoke!  How soon… with what strange rapidity; indeed!… did Pearl arrive atan age that was capable of social intercourse; beyond the mother'sever…ready smile and nonsense…words! And then what a happiness wouldit have been; could Hester Prynne have heard her clear; birdlike voicemingling with the uproar of other childish voices; and havedistinguished and unravelled her own darling's tones; amid all theentangled outcry of a group of sportive children! But this could neverbe。 Pearl was a born outcast of the infantile world。 An imp of evil;emblem and product of sin; she had no right among christenedinfants。 Nothing was more remarkable than the instinct; as itseemed; with which the child prehended her loneliness; thedestiny that had drawn an inviolable circle round about her; the wholepeculiarity; in short; of her position in respect to other children。Never; since her release from prison; had Hester met the public gazewithout her。 In all her walks about the town; Pearl; too; was there;first as the babe in arms; and afterwards as the little girl; smallpanion of her mother; holding a forefinger with her whole grasp;and tripping along at the rate of three or four footsteps to one ofHester's。 She saw the children of the settlement; on the grassy marginof the street; or at the domestic thresholds; disporting themselves insuch grim fashion as the Puritanic nurture would permit; playing atgoing to church; perchance; or at scourging Quakers; or takingscalps in a sham…fight with the Indians; or scaring one another withfreaks of imitative witchcraft。 Pearl saw; and gazed intently; butnever sought to make acquaintance。 If spoken to; she would not speakagain。 If the children gathered about her; as they sometimes did;Pearl would grow positively terrible in her puny wrath; snatching upstones to fling at them; with shrill; incoherent exclamations; thatmade her mother tremble; because they had so much the sound of awitch's anathemas in some unknown tongue。  The truth was; that the little Puritans; being of the mostintolerant brood that ever lived; had a vague idea of somethingoutlandish; unearthly; or at variance with ordinary fashions; in themother and child; and therefore scorned them in their hearts; andnot unfrequently reviled them with their tongues。 Pearl felt thesentiment; and requited it with the bitterest hatred that can besupposed to rankle in a childish bosom。 These outbreaks of a fiercetemper had a kind of value; and even fort; for her mother;because there was at least an intelligible earnestness in the mood;instead of the fitful caprice that so often thwarted her in thechild's manifestations。 It appalled her; nevertheless; to discern hereagain; a shadowy reflection of the evil that had existed in herself。All this enmity and passion had Pearl inherited; by inalienable right;out of Hester's heart。 Mother and daughter stood together in thesame circle of seclusion from human society; and in the nature ofthe child seemed to be perpetuated those unquiet elements that haddistracted Hester Prynne before Pearl's birth; but had since begunto be soothed away by the softening influences of maternity。  At home; within and around her mother's cottage; Pearl wanted nota wide and various circle of acquaintance。 The spell of life wentforth from her ever creative spirit; and municated itself to athousand objects; as a torch kindles a flame wherever it may beapplied。 The unlikeliest materials… a stick; a bunch of rags; aflower… were the puppets of Pearl's witchcraft; and; withoutundergoing any outward change; became spiritually adapted towhatever drama occupied the stage of her inner world。 Her onebaby…voice served a multitude of imaginary personages; old andyoung; to talk withal。 The pine…trees; aged; black and solemn; andflinging groans and other melancholy utterances on the breeze;needed little transformation to figure as Puritan elders; theugliest weeds of the garden were their children; whom Pearl smote downand uprooted; most unmercifully。 It was wonderful; the vast variety offorms into which she threw her intellect; with no continuity;indeed; but darting up and dancing; always in a state of preternaturalactivity… soon sinking down; as if exhausted by so rapid andfeverish a tide of life… and succeeded by other shapes of a similarwild energy。 It was like nothing so much as the phantasmagoric play ofthe northern lights。 In the mere exercise of the fancy; however; andthe sportiveness of a growing mind; there might be little more thanwas observable in other children of bright faculties; except as Pearl;in the dearth of human playmates; was thrown more upon the visionarythrong which she created。 The singularity lay in the hostilefeelings with which the child regarded all these offspring of herown heart and mind。 She never created a friend; but seemed always tobe sowing broadcast the dragon's teeth; whence sprung a harvest ofarmed enemies; against whom she rushed to battle。 It was inexpressiblysad… then what depth of sorrow to a mother; who felt in her ownheart the cause!… to observe; in one so young; this constantrecognition of an adverse world; and so fierce a training of theenergies that were to make good her cause; in the contest that mustensue。  Gazing at Pearl; Hester Prynne often dropped her work upon herknees; and cried out with an agony which she would fain have hidden;but which made utterance for itself; betwixt speech and a groan; 〃OFather in heaven… if Thou art still my Father… what is this beingwhich I have brought into the world!〃 And Pearl; overbearing theejaculation; or aware; through some more subtile channel; of thosethrobs of anguish; would turn her vivid and beautiful little face uponher mother; smile with sprite…like intelligence; and resume her play。  One peculiarity of the child's deportment remains yet to be told。The very first thing which she had noticed; in her life; was… what?…not the mother's smile; responding to it; as other babies do; bythat faint; embryo smile of the little mouth; remembered so doubtfullyafterwards; and with such fond discussion whether it were indeed asmile。 By no means! But that first object of which Pearl seemed tobee aware was… shall we say it?… the scarlet letter on Hester'sbosom! One day; as her mother stooped over the cradle; the infant'seyes had been caught by the glimmering of the gold embroidery aboutthe letter; and; putting up her little hand; she grasped at it;smiling; not doubtfully; but with a decided gleam; that gave herface the look of a much older child。 Then; gasping for breath; didHester Prynne clutch the fatal token; instinctively endeavouring totear it away; so infinite was the torture inflicted by the intelligenttouch of Pearl's baby hand。 Again; as if her mother's agonised gesturewere meant only to make sport for her; did little Pearl look intoher eyes; and smile! From that epoch; except when the child wasasleep; Hester had never felt a moment's safety; not a moment's calmenjoyment of her。 Weeks; it is true; would sometimes elapse; duringwhich Pearl's gaze might never once be fixed upon the scarletletter; but then; again; it would e at unawares; like the stroke ofsudden death; and always with that peculiar smile; and oddexpression of the eyes。  Once; this freakish; elvish cast came into the child's eyes; whileHester was looking at

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