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 confess that you have missed
five times, and God knows if you may have missed oftener. _Atqui_,
as I rarely call the roll, every time I catch any one I put five
marks against him; _ergo_, how many are five times five? Have you
forgotten the multiplication table? Five times five?"

"Twenty-five."

"Correct, correct! Thus you've still got away with ten, because I have
caught you only three times. Huh, if I had caught you every time--Now,
how many are three times five?"

"Fifteen."

"Fifteen, right you are!" concluded the professor, closing the
register. "If you miss once more--out of doors with you, get out! Ah,
now a mark for the failure in the daily lesson."