YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN by Nathaniel Hawthorne
"Faith kept me back a while" Faith is the name of his wife but it seems to be more symbolic than that. When he says this it sounds like the hand of faith was the reason for his delay, and that act helped lead to the events that later followed in this reading. B y being held back by his wife and not just leaving it gave him more to think about and more time to think about it.

"replied he of the serpent" This is used to describe his companion. The serpent describes an untrustworthy trickster of evil. As that of which is used in Adam and Eve. This tells the reader his companion is evil and not to be trusted, his words are poison.