It was as he had expected. "We can always start again when we've done wrong," he said. He watched her. She seemed tormented by something and he wished that he could help her. "We can talk about what troubles you, though it isn't a substitute for confession. I cannot absolve you." But perhaps he could lower the threshold to confession, and offer her the counselling she might not easily accept from Kemble. Father Kemble wouldn't like him to do any of the pastoral talks either, and Gabriel wanted to obey, but this woman seemed to be in agony. Was it not justified to the Sabbath in order to save an ox from of a pit?