"The brothers at En-Gadi would receive him," he said.
"What need of him to retire from the world if he be a good Jew?" Saul persisted.
Again the young man hesitated. Saul was driving him into a declaration that he would have led forth gradually. Then he came to the Pharisee and laid a persuading band on his arm.
"Go not to the synagogue," he entreated. "Wait a little!"
"Wait in the Lord's business?" Saul asked mildly.
"Be not hastier than the chastening of the Lord; if He bears with Stephen, so canst thou a little longer. Give love its chance with Stephen before vengeance undoes him wholly!"
"Marsyas," Saul protested in a tone of kindly remonstrance, "thou dost convict him by thy very concern."
"No!" the young Essene declared, pressing upon the Pharisee in passionate earnestness. "I am only troubled for him. Let me go first and understand him, for it seems that there is doubt in the hearts of his accusers, and after that—"
"Thine eye shall not pity him," Saul repeated in warning.
"Saul! Saul! He is my beloved friend!"