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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
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