The stranger, appearing first in chapter 3, is a small and old man with 'a furrowed visage'. He claimes that he is a wanderer, going southward coming from a heathen-folk. Moreover he is the Husband of Hester Prynne, which he tries, for now successfully, to hide. As a consequence of this he is also known as Master Prynne.
In that chapter he is talking to a townsman about himself, just the townsman doesnt know who he is.
He says that Master Prynne has been in Amsterdam for two years and his wife came without him.
So obviously Mr. Prynne lies at him by not telling him about his identity.He is quite smart ["There was remarkable intelligence in his features..." Pg. 56, ll. 13-14] and it seems like that he thinks over his words before he says something ["...to tell me of Hester Prynne's, - have I her name rightly?-of..." Pg. 57, ll 24-25 (That tells that he doesn't want anybody to know that he knows Hester. So he asked again for her name)]
As he is compared to a snake ["... like a snake gliding swiftly over them, and making on little pause, with all its wreathed intervolutions in open sight." Pg. 56, ll. 31-33], he is described as a man that is as well wicked, cunning and clever, which are the meanings of a snake.
As snakes are most green, or at least shown and associated as green, which stands among others for money maybe she had to marry him for his abundance?
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