Abigail was anything BUT kind and gentle, though Trask (and probably Abigail herself) thought she was.
[spoiler]She was insulting and extremely cruel, particularly to Vicki, Naomi, and even little Sarah. (I hated Abigail when she tried to scare Sarah into ratting out Vicki's whereabouts about what happens to "little girls who lie to their elders", the damnation that would befall them.
Plus Abigail struck me as the kind of woman who would NEVER admit when she's wrong...remember she refused to believe Barnabas when he told her it was Angelique, not Vicki, who had been doing all the witchcraft. I think in her warped, misguided mind, to admit she could be wrong about anyone or anything would be to admit she was not a Christian woman.[/spoiler]
I love that scene you mention about Minerva too. I always believed she and Gregory didn't have a very happy marriage, at least at this point of their lives.