Chapter 22: The Procession

-Hester is worried by this new development.
--“Her spirit sank with the idea that all must have been a delusion, and that, vividly as she had dreamed it, there could be no real bond betwixt the clergyman and herself. And thus much of woman was there in Hester, that she could scarcely forgive him, - least of all now, when the heavy footstep of their approaching Fate might be heard, nearer, nearer, nearer! - for being able so completely to withdraw himself from their mutual world; while she groped darkly, and stretched forth her cold hands, and found him not”(214-215).
-Hester moved up onto the scaffold where she spent much time long ago, simply to hear Dimmesdale's sermon.
--“An irresistible feeling kept Hester near the spot. As the sacred edifice was too much thronged to admit another auditor, she took up her position close beside the scaffold of the pillory. It was in sufficient proximity to bring the whole sermon to her ears, in the shape of an indistinct, but varied, murmur and flow of the minister's very peculiar voice”(217).
-Pearl brings a message to Hester, saying that Chillingworth will be with Dimmesdale and Hester is to be with Pearl.
--“‘Then tell her,’ rejoined he, ‘that I spake again with the black-a-visaged, hump-shouldered old doctor, and he engages to bring his friend, the gentleman she wots of, aboard with him. So let thy mother take no thought, save for herself and thee. Wilt thou tell her this, thou witch- baby?’”(219-220)
-Hester looks about, and sees that everyone is looking at her, as she is on the scaffold.
--“With her mind harassed by the terrible perplexity in which the shipmaster's intelligence involved her, she was also subjected to another trial. There were many people present, from the country round about, who had often heard of the scarlet letter, and to whom it had been made terrific by a hundred false or exaggerated rumours, but who had never beheld it with their own bodily eyes. These, after exhausting other modes of amusement, now thronged about Hester Prynne with rude and boorish intrusiveness. Unscrupulous as it was, however, it could not bring them nearer than a circuit of several yards”(220).