Pearl's inevitable tendency to hoverabout the enigmaof the scarlet letter seemed an innate quality of her being. From the earliest epochof her conscious life, she had entered upon this as her appointed mission. Hester had often fancied that Providence had a design of justice and retribution, in endowing the child with this marked propensitybut never, until now, had she bethought herself to ask, whether, linked with that design, there might not likewise be a purpose of mercy and beneficence. If little Pearl were entertained with faith and trust, as a spirit messenger no less than an earthly child, might it not be her errandto soothe away the sorrow that lay cold in her mother's heart, and converted it into a tomb?- and to help her to overcome the passion, once so wild, and even yet neither dead nor asleep, but only imprisoned within the same tomb-like heart? Such were some of the thoughts that now stirred in Hester's mind, with as much vivacityof impression as if they had actually been whispered into her ear. And there was little Pearl, all this while, holding her mother's hand in both her own, and turning her face upward, while she put these searching questions, once, and again, and still a third time.
珠儿一味纠缠着要弄清红字之谜,看来是她的一种内在的天性。从她开始懂事的时候起,就对这一问题当作指定的使命来琢磨。海丝特从那时起就常常想象:上天赋予这孩子这种突出的倾向,是有其惩恶扬善的果报意图在内的;但直到最近,她才扪心自问,是否还有一个与那个意图相关的施赐仁慈与恩惠的目的。如果把小珠儿不仅当作一个尘世的孩子,也当‘作一个精神使者,对她抱有忠诚与信任,那么,她难道就不能承担起她的使命,把冷冷地藏在她母亲心中、从而把那颗心变成坟墓的忧伤扫荡净尽吗?——并帮助母亲克制那一度十分狂野、至今仍未死去或入睡、而只是禁锢在同一颗坟墓般的心中的激情呢?此时在海丝特头脑中翻腾的就是这些念头;其印象之活跃生动,不啻在她耳畔低语。而且眼前就有小珠儿,在这段时间里始终用双手握住母亲的手,还仰起脸来望着母亲,同时一而再、再而三地刨根问底。
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