Moreover, Pierre had to wait a long time for admittance, and when a servant, leisurely putting on his jacket, at last set the door ajar, it was only to say that his Eminence had been away at Frascati since the previous day.
* This is the French church of Rome, and is under the protection of the French Government .-- Trans.
Pierre then remembered that Cardinal Sanguinetti was one of the suburban bishops.

At his see of Frascati he had a villa where he occasionally spent a few days whenever a desire for rest or some political motive impelled him to do so.
"And will his Eminence soon return ?" Pierre inquired.
"Ah! we don't know.

His Eminence is poorly, and expressly desired us to send nobody to worry him." When Pierre reached the street again he felt quite bewildered by this disappointment.

At first he wondered whether he had not better call on Monsignor Fornaro without more ado, but he recollected Don Vigilio's advice to see the cardinals first of all, and, an inspiration coming to him, he resolved that his next visit should be for Cardinal Sarno, whose acquaintance he had eventually made at Donna Serafina's Mondays.

In spite of Cardinal Sarno's voluntary self-effacement, people looked upon him as one of the most powerful and redoubtable members of the Sacred College, albeit his nephew Narcisse Habert declared that he knew no man who showed more obtuseness in matters which did not pertain to his habitual occupations.