dale, forced to bear his brand internally, becomes very much incapacitated, both mentally and physically. The face he puts on for public approval and the one he wears while he is alone are so completely different that they nearly drive him insane. He is harder on himself for committing the sin than many a court of the time would have been, and it tears him apart. One day, he meets Hester and Pearl while walking through the woods and, after talking for a short while, they decide to leave Salem, to find a new life in the more c
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