“You have no cause to ask for forgiveness.” Quite the opposite, he was glad that she felt comfortable enough to speak to him freely. (He wondered if things would be the same if they had met under different circumstances, without the intermediary of the community. He liked to believe that they would be.) “I am grateful.”

Her faith in him was both welcome and unexpected. It was worth more to him that he could ever truly explain.

“For his own sake, we would have to conceal the truth of the community from him.”