le
professor applied himself to it with all his heart, slowly repeating
the question.

"The book says that the metallic mirrors are made of brass and an
alloy of different metals--is that true or is it not true?"

"So the book says, Padre."

"_Liber dixit, ergo ita est_. Don't pretend that you know more than the
book does. It then adds that the glass mirrors are made of a sheet of
glass whose two surfaces are well polished, one of them having applied
to it an amalgam of tin, _nota bene_, an amalgam of tin! Is that true?"

"If the book says so, Padre."

"Is tin a metal?"

"It seems so, Padre. The book says so."

"It is, it is, and the word amalgam means that it is compounded with
mercury, which is also a metal. _Ergo_, a glass mirror is a metallic
mirror; _ergo_, the terms of the distinction are confused; _ergo_,
the classification is imperfect--how do you explain that, meddler?"

He emphasized the _ergos_ and the familiar "you's" with indescribable
relish, at the same time winking, as though to say, "You're done for."

"It means that, it means that--" stammered Placido.

"It means that you haven't learned the lesson, you petty meddler,
you don't understand it yourself, and yet you prompt your neighbor!"

The class took no offense, but on the contrary many thought the
epithet funny and laughed. Placido bit his lips.

"What's your name?" the professor asked him.

"Placido," was the curt reply.

"Aha! Placido Penitente, although you look more like Placido the
Prompter--or the Prompted. But, _Penitent_, I'm going to impose some
_penance_ on you for your promptings."

Pleased with his play on words, he ordered the youth to recite the
lesson, and the latter, in the state of mind to which he was reduced,
made more than three mistakes. Shaking his head up and down, the
professor slowly opened the register and slowly scanned it while he
called off the names in a low voice.

"Palencia--Palomo--Panganiban--Pedraza--Pelado--Pelaez--Penitents,
aha! Placido Penitente, fifteen unexcused absences--"

Placido started up. "Fifteen absences, Padre?"

"Fifteen unexcused absences," continued the professor, "so that you
only lack one to be dropped from the roll."

"Fifteen absences, fifteen absences," repeated Placido in
amazement. "I've never been absent more than four times, and with
today, perhaps five."

"Jesso, jesso, monseer," [31] replied the professor, examining the
youth over his gold eye-glasses. "You conf