It might be, too- doubtless it was so, although she hid the secret from herself, and grew pale whenever it struggled out of her heart, like a serpent from its hole- it might be that another feeling kept her within the scene and pathway that had been so fatal. There dwelt, there trode the feet of one with whom she deemed herself connected in a union, that, unrecognised on earth, would bring them together before the bar of final judgment, and make that their marriage-altar, for a joint futurity of endless retribution. Over and over again, the tempter of souls had thrust this idea upon Hester's contemplation, and laughed at the passionate and desperate joy with which she seized, and then strove to cast it from her. She barely looked the idea in the face, and hastened to bar it in its dungeon. What she compelled herself to believe- what, finally, she reasoned upon, as her motive for continuing a resident of New England- was half a truth, and half a self-delusion. Here, she said to herself, had been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment; and so, perchance, the torture of her daily shame would at length purge her soul, and work out another purity than that which she had lost; more saint-like, because the result of martyrdom.
雖然她向自己隱藏著那個秘密，但只要那個秘密象蟒蛇出洞似的從她心中一鉆出來，她就會面色蒼白，這或許是——應該說無疑是，將她滯留在如此息息攸關的場地和小路上的另一種感情。在這場地上居住著一個人，在這里的小路上踏著他的腳步，雖說不為世人所認可，她卻自信他倆已結成一體，井將共同來到末日審判的席位前憑欄而立，在那里舉行神圣的婚禮，以共同承擔未來的永無止期的報應。人類靈魂的誘惑者一再把這個念頭塞進海絲特的腦海，還嘲笑著搜住她的情欲和狂喜，然后又竭力讓她拋掉這一念頭。她只能對這個念頭匆匆一瞥，便又急忙將其閉鎖在它的地窖里。終于，她分析出自己在新英格蘭繼續(xù)后留下來的動機，并且迫使自己去相信，其實只有一半是真情，另一半則是自欺。她對自己說，這里曾是她犯下罪孽的地方，這愿也應是她接受人問懲罰的地方；這樣，或許她逐日受到的恥辱的折磨最終會蕩滌她的靈魂，并產生出比她失去的那個還要神圣的另一個純潔，因為這是她殉道的結果。

Hester Prynne, therefore, did not flee. On the outskirts of the town, within the verge of the peninsula, but not in close vicinity to any other habitation, there was a small thatched cottage. It had been built by an earlier settler, and abandoned, because the soil about it was too sterile for cultivation, while its comparative remoteness put it out of the sphere of that social activity which already marked the habits of the emigrants. It stood on the shore, looking across a basin of the sea at the forest-covered hills, towards the west. A clump of scrubby trees, such as alone grew on the peninsula, did not so much conceal the cottage from view, as seem to denote that here was some object which would fain have been, or at least ought to be, concealed. In this little, lonesome dwelling, with some slender means that she possessed, and by the license of the magistrates, who still kept an inquisitorial watch over her, Hester established herself, with her infant child. A mystic shadow of suspicion immediately attached itself to the spot. Children, too young to comprehend wherefore this woman should be shut out from the sphere of human charities, would creep nigh enough to behold her plying her needle at the cottage-window, or standing in the doorway, or labouring in her little garden, or coming forth along the pathway that led townward; and, discerning the scarlet letter on her breast, would scamper off with a strange, contagious fear.
因此，海絲特·白蘭并沒有出走。在鎮(zhèn)郊半島的邊緣上，有—間小茅屋遠離居民區(qū)。這是原先的一名移民建起后又放棄了的，因為那一帶土地過了貧瘠，不宜耕種，況且離群索居，而社會活動當時已成為移民的一個顯著的習慣。茅屋位于岸邊，隔著一做海水與西邊一片濃蔭覆蓋的小山相望。半島上只長著一叢孤零零的矮樹，非但沒有遮住茅屋，反倒象是在指示出這里有一個目標，而那個目標原本不情愿或至少是應該被擋得看不見的。就在這間孤隨的小屋里，海絲特從仍在嚴密監(jiān)視她的當局處獲準，用她那菲薄的手段來養(yǎng)活她日己和她的孩于。一個疑慮重重的神秘陰影立刻就纏住了這塊地方。年紀尚幼、不理解這個女人為什么會被人類的仁慈拒之門外的孩子們，會躡手躡腳地走近前來，窺視她在茅屋窗邊飛針走線，窺視她位立門前，窺視她在小花園中耕作，窺視她踏上通往鎮(zhèn)子的小徑：待到看清她胸前的紅字，便懷著一種害怕受到傳染的奇異的恐懼，迅速逃開了。