His happiest hours were spent nowadays with Jane. From the first he had found himself courting her, and she, although surrounded by those who loved her, including her own doting father, was not satiated and complacent, but recognized in Leon’s love a special offer, an inexhaustible abundance. From infancy she cared little for women other than Sarah. For her own mother Jane’s feeling was cooler than not, and Rachel was conscious of being jealous of her daughter when she saw her with James or Leon. Oh, she knew they loved her too, even as they had loved her first; but she understood that she was no longer the delightful surprise to them Jane was. Jane knew it too. At five she was as old as Lilith.

Sarah was Other-Mama, Leon was Other-Papa; but the way Jane used the terms, each pronounced as one word as if it were a name rather than a designation, never had conveyed anything like “second” for “other.” Leon rode over every day to Oaks to see her, even when he was sure of seeing her through other circumstances later in a day. He often brought her presents, but that was not why she loved him. He took her into town with him, in his rig or riding in his arms in front of the saddle. Neither was happier than when they were together.

On one of those days he left his horse at the hitching rail behind the post office, and they crossed the railroad tracks to the depot to wait for the train to arrive from Savannah with the day’s mail. Leon stood with a group of men who were chewing tobacco and spitting and talking as usual of Davis and Lincoln and war. Jane ran after a black and white cat that had stepped prissily out of the telegraph room on the platform and stared at her coldly before hopping off the platform and turning to see if she was still observed. It was not in Jane to refuse such a dare.

The talk of the men continued until the whistle of the train, not yet in sight, wailed and shrilled distantly. Hearing it, the men broke off their talk. Jane heard it and abandoned the chase of the cat, clambering up the wooden steps to the platform and running full force toward Leon who saw and caught and held her up even before she could command, as she always did: “Hold me up high so I can see!”