"Oh, Arthur!" cried she, "forgive me! In all things else, I
have striven to be true! Truth was the one virtue which I might
have held fast, and did hold fast, through all extremity; save
when thy good--thy life--thy fame--were put in question! Then I
consented to a deception. But a lie is never good, even though
death threaten on the other side! Dost thou not see what I would
say? That old man!--the physician!--he whom they call Roger
Chillingworth!--he was my husband!"
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The minister looked at her for an instant, with all that
violence of passion, which--intermixed in more shapes than one
with his higher, purer, softer qualities--was, in fact, the
portion of him which the devil claimed, and through which he
sought to win the rest. Never was there a blacker or a fiercer
frown than Hester now encountered. For the brief space that it
lasted, it was a dark transfiguration. But his character had
been so much enfeebled by suffering, that even its lower
energies were incapable of more than a temporary struggle. He
sank down on the ground, and buried his face in his hands.
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