minister, who was coming from the deathbed of Governor Winthrop, passes without noticing Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale also starts to laugh thinking about what would happen if the town woke up the next morning to find their holy minister on the place of public shame. This laugh is answered by a laugh from Pearl, whom he hadn't noticed coming. (Hester and Pearl, too, were at Winthrop's deathbed.) He asks them to get on the scaffold with him. When they are all standing there, the three of them hold hands, forming "an electric chain." The minister feels energized and warmed by their presence. Pearl innocently asks, "Wilt thou stand here with Mother and me, tomorrow noontide?" but the minister says he will not, dreading the public exposure. As they are standing there together, a meteor shower brightens the sky and makes everything visible. When the minister looks up, he sees an "A" in the sky, marked out in dull red light. At the same time, Pearl is pointing to Chillingworth who is standing at a distance watching them. Dimmesdale asks Hester who Chillingworth ("a nameless horror") really is, but Hester, sworn to secrecy, cannot tell his name. Pearl says that she knows, mumbling something that Dimmesdale cannot understand and making Dimmesdale think that the child is making fun of his terror. Pearl responds that she does this only because Dimmesdale is not bold enough to stand with her and her mother in daylight. Chillingworth coaxes the minister down, saying that the minister must have been sleepwalking to get up there. When Dimmesdale asks how Chillingworth knew that the minister was there, Chillingworth says that he came from Winthrop's deathbed and just passed by. He goes home with Chillingworth and, the next day, preaches his richest sermon. After the sermon, the church sexton hands Dimmesdale a black glove that was found on the scaffold. When the sexton recognized it as the minister's, the sexton concluded that Satan must have been up to mis...
