After a time, at a hint from Roger Chillingworth, the friends of Mr. Dimmesdale effected an arrangement by which the two were lodged in the same house; so that every ebb and flow of the minister's life-tide might pass under the eye of his anxious and attached physician. There was much joy throughout the town, when this greatly desirable object was attained. It was held to be the best possible measure for the young clergyman's welfare: unless, indeed, as often urged by such as felt authorised to do so, he had selected some one of the many blooming damsels, spiritually devoted to him, to become his devoted wife. This latter step, however, there was no present prospect that Arthur Dimmesdale would be prevailed upon to take; he rejected all suggestions of the kind, as if priestly celibacy were one of his articles of church-discipline. Doomed by his own choice, therefore, as Mr. Dimmesdale so evidently was, to eat his unsavoury morsel always at another's board, and endure the lifelong chill which must be his lot who seeks to warm himself only at another's fireside, it truly seemed that this sagacious, experienced, benevolent old physician, with his concord of paternal and reverential love for the young pastor, was the very man, of all mankind, to be constantly within reach of his voice.
過了一段時間，在羅杰·齊靈渥斯的暗示之下，丁梅斯代爾先生的朋友們作出安排，讓他倆同住在一棟房子里；這樣，牧師生活之潮的每一個起落都只能在他的這位形影相隨的熱心醫(yī)生的眼皮底下發(fā)生。這一眾望所矚的目的達(dá)到之后，舉鎮(zhèn)歡騰。人們認(rèn)為，這是有利于年輕牧師的最好的可行措施。除非，當(dāng)真如某些自認(rèn)為有權(quán)威的人所一再催促的那樣，他從那眾多的如花似玉、在精神上崇拜他的年輕姑娘當(dāng)中選擇一位充當(dāng)他忠實的妻子。然而，目前尚無跡象表明阿瑟·丁梅斯代爾已經(jīng)屈從眾愿采取這一步驟；他對這類建議一概加以拒絕，仿佛僧侶的獨身主義是他教會規(guī)章中的一項條款。因此，既然丁梅斯代爾先生明顯地作了這種選擇，他就注定耍永遠(yuǎn)在別人的飯桌上吃無味的配餐，除去在別人的爐火旁取暖之外，只有忍受終生寒冷的份；看來，這位洞察一切、經(jīng)驗豐富、慈愛為本的老醫(yī)生，以父兄般的關(guān)懷和教民的敬愛對待這年輕的牧師，確實是全人類中與他如影隨形的最恰當(dāng)?shù)娜诉x了。

The new abode of the two friends was with a pious widow, of good social rank, who dwelt in a house covering pretty nearly the site on which the venerable structure of King's Chapel has since been built. It had the graveyard, originally Isaac Johnson's home-field, on one side, and so was well adapted to call up serious reflections, suited to their respective employments, in both minister and man of physic. The motherly care of the good widow assigned to Mr. Dimmesdale a front apartment, with a sunny exposure, and heavy window-curtains, to create a noon-tide shadow, when desirable. The walls were hung round with tapestry, said to be from the Gobelin looms, and, at all events, representing the Scriptural story of David and Bathsheba, and Nathan the Prophet, in colours still unfaded, but which made the fair woman of the scene almost as grimly picturesque as the woe-denouncing seer. Here, the pale clergyman piled up his library, rich with parchment-bound folios of the Fathers, and the lore of Rabbis, and monkish erudition, of which the Protestant divines, even while they vilified and decried that class of writers, were yet constrained often to avail themselves. On the other side of the house, old Roger Chillingworth arranged his study and laboratory; not such as a modern man of science would reckon even tolerably complete, but provided with a distilling apparatus, and the means of compounding drugs and chemicals, which the practised alchemist knew well how to turn to purpose. With such commodiousness of situation, these two learned persons sat themselves down, each in his own domain, yet familiarly passing from one apartment to the other, and bestowing a mutual and not incurious inspection into one another's business.
這兩位朋友的新居屬于一個虔信宗教的寡婦，她有著不錯的社會地位，她這所住宅所占的地皮離后來修建的王家教堂相距不遠(yuǎn)，一邊有一塊墓地，就是原先艾薩克·約翰遜的舊宅，這里易于喚起嚴(yán)肅認(rèn)真的回憶，很適合牧師和醫(yī)生雙方各自的職業(yè)。那好心腸的寡婦，以慈母般的關(guān)懷，分配丁梅斯代爾先生住在前室，那里有充分的陽光，還有厚實的窗簾，如果愿意的話，中午也可把房間遮得十分幽暗。四壁懸掛著據(jù)說是戈白林②織機(jī)上織出的織錦，不管真假，上面確實繡著《圣經(jīng)》上面所記載的大衛(wèi)、拔示巴和預(yù)言者拿單的故事③，顏色尚未褪掉，可惜畫中的美婦簡直如那宣告災(zāi)難的預(yù)言者一樣面目可憎了。面色蒼白的牧師在這里摞起他的豐富藏書，其中有對開桑皮紙精裝本的先哲們的著作、拉比④們記下的傳說、以及許多僧院的考證——對這類文獻(xiàn)，請教教士們盡管竭力詆毀，卻不得不備作不時之需。在住宅的另一側(cè)，老羅杰·齊靈渥斯布置下他的書齋和實驗室；在一位現(xiàn)代科學(xué)家看來，連勉強(qiáng)齊備都稱不上，但總還有一個蒸餾釜及一些配藥和化驗的設(shè)備，都是這位慣于實驗的煉丹術(shù)士深知如何加以利用的。有了這樣寬敞的環(huán)境，這兩位學(xué)者便在各自的房間里坐了下來，不過經(jīng)常不拘禮節(jié)地互訪，彼此懷著好奇心觀察另一個人的事情。