Hester implores Reverend Dimmesdale to speak on her behalf when she is at the governor's house and is told that city officials are considering removing Pearl from her care; many of them consider Hester to be an unfit mother due to her sin and status in the community. She claims that since Dimmesdale is her pastor, he knows her soul better than these men ever could, and she also claims that he has "sympathies which these men lack." By this, she is likely referring to the fact that he is Pearl's father (a fact that no one but the two of them know for sure for the time being), but -- to the others -- it would seem as though she is simply saying that he can sympathize with her better than the other community leaders because he knows her heart best.
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