In the novel Barabbas, what impact does the girl with the Hare-lip have on Barabbas?

Barabbas meets the girl on the walk back from Galgotha after Christ is crucified. They have no connection but she slips into the fat woman's place with Barabbas and eats what he leaves. She lives on the streets and has met Jesus, though she didn't ask Jesus to cure her deformity. When Barabbas goes to the tomb where Jesus was buried on the morning of the resurrection, the girl is there. She swears that she saw Jesus resurrected though Barabbas thinks the believers simply took his body away. She witnesses for Christ and is soon stoned to death for her outspoken belief. It's later revealed that she had nursed Barabbas once when he was seriously injured and that he had told her he loved her in order to retain her services. When the girl is stoned to death, Barabbas takes her body away from the pit for burial.