 Here, indeed, in the sable
simplicity that generally characterized the Puritanic modes of dress, there
might be an infrequent call for the finer productions of her handiwork. Yet the
taste of the age, demanding whatever was elaborate in compositions of this kind,
did not fail to extend its influence over our stern progenitors, who had cast
behind them so many fashions which it might seem harder to dispense with. Public
ceremonies, such as ordinations, the installation of magistrates, and all that
could give majesty to the forms in which a new government manifested itself to
the people, were, as a matter of policy, marked by a stately and well-conducted
ceremonial, and a sombre, but yet a studied magnificence. Deep ruffs, painfully
wrought bands, and gorgeously embroidered gloves, were all deemed necessary to
the official state of men assuming the reins of power; and were readily allowed
to individuals dignified by rank or wealth, even while sumptuary laws forbade
these and similar extravagances to the plebeian order. In the array of funerals,
too, - whether for the apparel of the dead body, or to typify, by manifold
emblematic devices of sable cloth and snowy lawn, the sorrow of the survivors, -
there was a frequent and characteristic demand for such labor as Hester Prynne
could supply. Baby-linen - for babies then wore robes of state - afforded still
another possibility of toil and emolument.
    By degrees, nor very slowly, her handiwork became what would now be termed
the fashion. Whether from commiseration for a woman of so miserable a destiny;
or from the morbid curiosity that gives a fictitious value even to common or
worthless things; or by whatever other intangible circumstance was then, as now,
sufficient to bestow, on some persons, what others might seek in vain; or
because Hester really filled a gap which must otherwise have remained vacant; it
is certain that she had ready and fairly requited employment for as many hours
as she saw fit to occupy with her needle. Vanity, it may be, chose to mortify
itself, by putting on, for ceremonials of pomp and state, the garments that had
been wrought by her sinful hands. Her needle-work was seen on the ruff of the
Governor; military men wore it on their scarfs, and the minister on his band; it
decked the baby's little cap; it was shut up, to be mildewed and moulder away,
in the coffins of the dead. But it is not recorded that, in a single instance,
her skill was called in aid to embroider the white veil which was to cover the
pure blushes
