“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.
[pg 65] 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.”
He took a card from his case and wrote: “Jeannette, Mein Liebchen: Willst Du mich Heiraten?”
He handed her the card; she read it; the match went out. There was a little scuffle, a smothered exclamation. A great owl, whose downy wings made no noise, lit in the elm by the gate and observing them through his night optics, exclaimed: “Who! Who!” Surprised, the captain released his prisoner; she darted into the doorway, calling: “Goodnight, Captain, hope to see you tomorrow.”
Her dream love ended that night; the talisman that drove it from this material to the spirit world, where it was doubtless happier, was a very human kiss. Most of you girls know the kind—they were smuggled in from Europe when our boys came home.
The following afternoon, Jeannette, book in hand, sought the shelter of her vine-clad bower. On the bench was a note which she read. She had just finished it, when the Captain stood at the entrance.