The cause of so much amazement may appear sufficiently slight. Mr. Hooper, a gentlemanly person of about thirty, though still a bachelor,
was dressed with due clerical neatness, as if a careful wife had starched his band and brushed the weekly dust from his Sunday's garb.
There was but one thing remarkable in his appearance. Swathed about his forehead and hanging down over his face, so low as to be
shaken by his breath, Mr. Hooper had on a black veil. On a nearer view, it seemed to consist of two folds of crape, which entirely concealed
his features except the mouth and chin, but probably did not intercept his sight further than to give a darkened aspect to all living and
inanimate things. With this gloomy shade before him good Mr. Hooper walked onward at a slow and quiet pace, stooping somewhat and
looking on the ground, as is customary with abstracted men, yet nodding kindly to those of his parishioners who still waited on the meeting-
house steps. But so wonder-struck were they that his greeting hardly met with a return.
[Mr. Hooper] entered with an almost noiseless step, bent his head mildly to the pews on each side and bowed as he passed his oldest
parishioner, a white-haired great grandsire, who occupied an armchair in the centre of the aisle. It was strange to observe how slowly this
venerable man became conscious of something singular in the appearance of his pastor. He seemed not fully to partake of the prevailing
wonder till Mr. Hooper had ascended the stairs and showed himself in the pulpit, face to face with his congregation except for the black veil.
That mysterious emblem was never once withdrawn. It shook with his measured breath as he gave out the psalm, it threw its obscurity
between him and the holy page as he read the Scriptures, and while he prayed the veil lay heavily on his uplifted countenance Did he seek
to hide it from the dread Being whom he was addressing?
Mr. Hooper had the reputation of a good preacher, but not an energetic one: he strove to win his people heavenward by mild, persuasive
influences rather than to drive them thither by the thunders of the word. The sermon which he now delivered was marked by the same
characteristics of style and manner as the general series of his pulpit oratory, but there was something either in the sentiment of the
discourse itself or in the imagination of the auditors which made it greatly the most powerful effort that they had ever heard from their
pastor's lips. It was tinged rather more darkly than usual with the gentle gloom of Mr. Hooper's temperament. The subject had reference to
secret sin and those sad mysteries which we hide from our nearest and dearest, and would fain conceal from our own consciousness, even
forgetting that the Omniscient can detect them A subtle power was breathed into his words. Each member of the congregation, the most
innocent girl and the man of hardened breast, felt as if the preacher had crept upon them behind his awful veil and discovered their hoarded
iniquity of deed or thought. Many spread their clasped hands on their bosoms. There was nothing terrible in what Mr. Hooper said--at least
no violence, and yet with every tremor of his melancholy voice the hearers quaked. An unsought pathos came hand in hand with awe So
sensible were the audience of some unwonted attribute in their minister that they longed for a breath of wind to blow aside the veil, almost
believing that a stranger's visage would be discovered though the form, gesture and voice were those of Mr. Hooper.
How does the author simultaneously develop the themes of hidden sin and underlying guilt in the passage?
A. by contrasting the terrifying nature of Mr. Hooper's appearance with his persuasive style of speaking
B. by using sensory language to capture the emotional experience of Mr. Hooper upon his arrival at the church
C. by emphasizing the growing unease among the congregation at Mr. Hooper's appearance and the message of his sermon
D. by examining the role of the congregation to highlight the importance of forgiveness