She turned the card over and read "William Lees Blair." She called out the door, "Good night, Captain William Lees Blair;" and went to her room.
He did not see her again until the next afternoon. He heard her singing on Big Rock, and walking down to the creek, followed up the bank until he came to the foot of the rock. It was very steep on that side, almost unscalable. She heard him climbing up. His hat fell off; a moment later his bare red head peeped above the surface, then his smiling, ruddy face rose slowly over the edge, much as she had seen the full red moon rise over the edge of the cliff that capped her mountain.
"_Ah vie! Ah vie! Jai trouve la place ou tu demeures._"
She took it saying: "Now since you have had your second lesson in penmanship, you may go home. I am busy embroidering a Christmas present for a friend and as this is the twenty-third of July, am too busy upon it to be disturbed."
That evening Simeon and his wife sat out upon the porch; Jeannette and Sandy upon the door-step. He had his fiddle and was playing "Turkey in the Straw," keeping time with his foot, his face lit by a happy smile. Jeannette's slipper tapped the floor in minor accompaniment. She looked into his face; saw the brightness of it in the darkness, and whispered: "Your music is most suggestive: I never felt so much like dancing as I do tonight."
Sandy thought his cousins had forgotten their rule of retiring with the chickens. The old rooster crowed. "Listen at Old Speck, he thinks it's almost day." Simeon gave an enormous yawn; they thought he would never close his mouth. It went shut with a snap, followed by the remark: "It's time all honest folks were in bed." It was nearly nine o'clock; and he and his wife went in.
How glorious the night; how peaceful and starry; a time for visions, not words, therefore no one spoke. The bold, bad captain, taking advantage of the darkness, made Jeannette's hand a prisoner. It fluttered as a frightened bird; then it lay still, either having lost hope of escape or resigned to a captive fate. Suddenly it escaped.
"Captain, I'm surprised! Get pencil and paper; you must have your third lesson in penmanship. Look on the mantel and bring me a couple of matches."