la._ I'm not the hostess, sir, she is away; I merely take her
place till she comes back.

_Roger._ You fill it rarely.

_Ursula._ God bless thee, sir, I'm cook, nurse, or hostess, as
people need me. Ursula Cook, Ursula Nurse, or Ursula Goodale, at
your service, sir.

_Roger._ Ah, indeed, Ursula! Then I presume thou knowest many of the
citizens?

_Ursula._ I know them everyone.

_Roger._ This wine is excellent. [_Drinking_] Dost know one Roger
Prynne?

_Ursula._ The husband of our Hester Prynne?

_Roger._ The same. [_Aside_] Thank God, she lives.

_Ursula._ He's dead, sir, rest his soul, a more than thirty months
ago.

_Roger._ Poor fellow! He was a friend of mine. Where did they bury
him?

_Ursula._ His ship was wrecked, he had no burial.

_Roger._ Here's to his memory! You know his wife?

_Ursula._ Alas; I do, sweet lady!

_Roger._ And why alas? The loss of a husband is no great calamity in
a colony. There can be no dearth here of husband-material, I fancy.

_Ursula._ Whence come you that you know so little of the doings
here?

_Roger._ From the far South, where for two long years and more I've
lived among the savages. What do you mean?

_Ursula._ I mean her trial by the magistrates.

_Roger._ Tried by magistrates? For what?

_Ursula._ Adultery.

_Roger._ Tried for adultery?

_Ursula._ Aye, sir, that she is.

_Roger._ It is a lie, a damned lie! Tried for adultery! A likely
thing! So pure a woman! A purer creature never lived!

_Ursula._ Sir, you are her friend? You know her?

_Roger._ I am--I am her husband--her husband's friend. I knew her in
Old England. Adultery! A pretty word! Who doth accuse her? Damned
detractors!

_Ursula._ Her child.

_Roger._ Her what?

_Ursula._ Her child.

_Roger._ Hath Hester Prynne a child? Well, well; that is news
indeed! God bless the little thing! it can't be quite as much as
three years old; nay, not so old. Why, such a tot can give no
testimony. I'll go to this trial; I may be able yet to aid her.
Adultery! Bah!

_Ursula._ God bless your heart, sir.

_Roger._ Is't a boy or girl, how old?

_Ursula._ A girl and three months old.

_Roger._ Three months? Three years you mean.

_Ursula._ Three months, I said.

_Roger._ Thou dost not mean that Hester Prynne hath borne a child
within the last two years?

_Ursula._ I do. [_Aside_] A strange man, truly. This news hath
troubled him; but that's not strange, it troubles all her friends.
He seemed