She
replied, smilingly, that it was wrong of him to make fun of her.
"Oh! no, I am in earnest," he said, and put his left arm around
her waist while they sauntered along. The air was soft, the stars
were bright, and the huge load of hay oscillated in front of them,
drawn by four horses whose ponderous hoofs raised clouds of dust.
Without a word from their driver they turned to the right. He
kissed her again and she went home. The following week, Theodore
obtained meetings.
They met in yards, behind walls or under isolated trees. She was
not ignorant, as girls of well-to-do families are--for the animals
had instructed her;--but her reason and her instinct of honour
kept her from falling. Her resistance exasperated Theodore's love
and so in order to satisfy it (or perchance ingenuously), he
offered to marry her. She would not believe him at first, so he
made solemn promises. But, in a short time he mentioned a
difficulty; the previous year, his parents had purchased a
substitute for him; but any day he might be drafted and the
prospect of serving in the army alarmed him greatly. To Felicite
his cowardice appeared a proof of his love for her, and her
devotion to him grew stronger.
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