"At this wild and singular appeal, which indicated that Hester Prynne's situation had provoked her to little less than madness, the young minister at once came forward, pale, and holding his hand over his heart, as was his custom whenever his peculiarly nervous temperament was thrown into agitation. "
the minister understood wanted of course to help Hester in keeping her daughter, and his excessive reaction, as we can understand, or anyway his "agitation" lets us understand that the response to Hester's demand is not just a priest's duty, but there is something more.
"He looked now more careworn and emaciated than as we described him at the scene of Hester's public ignominy; and whether it were his failing health, OR WHATEVER THE CAUSE MIGHT BE, his large dark eyes had a world of pain in their troubled and melancholy depth."
Here H., taking again a few words to link with the previous paragraph, talking again of a different element in his normal temperament, is telling us that there is something more besides a priest's love for his follower.
Much more. Placing his hand over is heart is going to be a motif - it'll change through the course of the novel.
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