four o’clock
`` I could almost wish he might , '' said Pillerault , solemnly ; `` but he is so religious that , as things are now , his director , the Abbe Loraux , alone can save him . '' Pillerault , Popinot , and Constance waited while a clerk was sent to bring the Abbe Loraux , before they carried up to Cesar the schedule which Celestin had prepared , and asked him to affix his signature . The clerks were in despair , for they loved their master . At four o'clock the good priest came ; Constance explained the misfortune that had fallen upon them , and the abbe went upstairs as a soldier mounts the breach . `` I know why you have come ! '' cried Birotteau . `` My son , '' said the priest , `` your feelings of resignation to the Divine will have long been known to me ; it now remains to apply them .