Speug an
honourable tradesman" (breaking away on his own account with much
spirit), "a faithful husband, and an affectionate father. What? All a
mistake from beginning to end. Family trouble did it--conduct of a
relative," and the Bailie wept. Bailies and other municipal dignitaries
were a species of human beings so strange and incalculable to the
Rector, that he was hardly amazed at anything that they might say; and
having some vague idea that there had been a quarrel between the
Seminary and some Bailie or other, about something or other, some time
or other, he concluded that this was an official intimation that the
quarrel was over, and that it was in style and allusion according to the
habits of municipal circles.

"It is," he responded, bowing again, "my grateful duty, as Rector of the
Seminary, to thank you for your presence here to-day--the Mercury of the
gods, if I may say so--and for your courteous intimation that
the--er--controversy to which you--er--have delicately alluded is
healed. Any dispute between the Council and the Seminary could only have
a favourable issue. _Amantium irae amoris integratio_ has had another
illustration, Mr. Bailie; but it would please us that you should hear
the class translate the Ode we have in hand, which happens to be '_Ad
Sodales_.'" And a boy began to translate "_Nunc est bibendum_."

"Time to drink, did ye say?" and the Bailie, who had been taking a brief
nap, was immediately conscious. "Man, ye never said a truer word. Work
hard at yir lessons, laddies, and for ony sake dinna forget the
Catechism. Yir maister has an engagement wi' me, and he'll no be back
for an hour. Come awa,' man" (in a loud whisper to the amazed Rector),
"it's time we were off." And the Bailie, making a hurried rush for the
door, found himself in the arms of the school sergeant, who had caught
the sound of the uproar in the Rector's class-room, and suspected
trouble.

"Preserve us a', body and soul!" cried the Crimean veteran, as he
brought the Bailie to an equilibrium. "Could onybody have expected
this?" And then, with much presence of mind, he closed the door of the
Latin class-room and conducted the Bailie down-stairs to his cab, while
the magistrate remonstrated that the Rector was coming with him, and
that both were going to discuss the higher education of youth at the
_Black Bull_.

"Na, na, Bailie," said the sergeant. "It's no to the _Black Bull_, or
ony other bull, ye're to go this afternoo