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.