His relationship with Mrs Gould, who represents altruism, is highly allegorical. Though she is not Catholic, her altruism represents the foundation of Christianity, which to him appears "wonderful and angelic." This is another instance of Father Roman's "uninformed intelligence" seeing past superficial doctrine to the essential truth of Mrs Gould's nature, something that the political-minded Father Corbelan, for instance, is incapable of doing.

There is a deeper meaning to Mrs Gould's status as a "heretic" from the ranks of altruism: her marriage to materialism in the person of Charles Gould.