Not only he, but Willie himself absented themselves from classes that day, simply dropping a line to the various professors candidly owning up to the cause of their playing truant.
So Sandie escorted his dear mother, and Willie chaperoned Elsie, all over the Granite City. It was the first time Elsie had been to Aberdeen, and she was naturally much struck by the marble whiteness of the stately buildings.
The ladies were even taken into the quad to gaze upon the University at which Sandie had achieved such signal success.
Then, when tired of wandering through the streets and seeing the lions of the place, Willie—wilful Willie, as Sandie called him—insisted upon their all dining together in the M‘Gregor Hotel.
“It is only four o’clock,” he said, “and you go away at six. Well, I would have asked you to my house, but we will be ever so much more free and easy here.”
“I shall pay,” said Sandie.
“Indeed, indeed you won’t.”
“Oh, but I must.”
“Well, if you do, I shan’t come out with you to Kilbuie to spend the Christmas week. So there!”
That settled it.