"Hawthorne, Nathaniel - Ethan Brand" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hawthorne Nathaniel)

man drew nigh. "Yet I neither claim nor desire a kinder one, even at
my own fireside."

To obtain a distincter view, Bartram threw open the iron door of
the kiln, whence immediately issued a gush of fierce light, that smote
full upon the stranger's face and figure. To a careless eye there
appeared nothing very remarkable in his aspect, which was that of a
man in a coarse, brown, country-made suit of clothes, tall and thin,
with the staff and heavy shoes of a wayfarer. As he advanced, he fixed
his eyes- which were very bright- intently upon the brightness of
the furnace, as if he beheld, or expected to behold, some object
worthy of note within it.

"Good evening, stranger," said the lime-burner; "whence come you,
so late in the day?"

"I come from my search," answered the wayfarer; "for, at last, it
is finished."

"Drunk!- or crazy!" muttered Bartram to himself. "I shall have
trouble with the fellow. The sooner I drive him away, the better."

The little boy, all in a tremble, whispered to his father, and
begged him to shut the door of the kiln, so that there might not be so
much light; for that there was something in the man's face which he
was afraid to look at, yet could not look away from. And, indeed, even
the lime-burner's dull and torpid sense began to be impressed by an
indescribable something in that thin, rugged, thoughtful visage,
with the grizzled hair hanging wildly about it, and those
deeply-sunken eyes, which gleamed like fires within the entrance of
a mysterious cavern. But, as he closed the door, the stranger turned
towards him, and spoke in a quiet, familiar way, that made Bartram
feel as if he were a sane and sensible man, after all.

"Your task draws to an end, I see," said he. "This marble has
already been burning three days. A few hours more will convert the
stone to lime."

"Why, who are you?" exclaimed the lime-burner. "You seem as well
acquainted with my business as I am myself."

"And well I may be," said the stranger; "for I followed the same
craft many a long year, and here, too, on this very spot. But you
are a newcomer in these parts. Did you never hear of Ethan Brand?"

"The man that went in search of the Unpardonable Sin?" asked
Bartram, with a laugh.

"The same," answered the stranger. "He has found what he sought,
and therefore he comes back again."