"You see that my friends have need of me.

I repeat to you that I can do absolutely nothing for your _protege_." But Pierre would not accept this reply as a final one.

"No, no, monsieur," he rejoined, "go to your affairs, I will wait for you here.
Don't come to a decision without full reflection.

You are wanted, and I feel that your mind is not sufficiently at liberty for you to listen to me properly.

By-and-by, when you come back and give me your full attention, I am sure that you will grant me what I ask." And, although Fonsegue, as he went off, repeated that he could not alter his decision, the priest stubbornly resolved to make him do so, and sat down on the bench again, prepared, if needful, to stay there till the evening.