For the first time in all her dealings with him he spoke sternly, as a man might speak, and Molly started at his tone.

"You are making a mistake," he said more quietly.

"I am not the superficial ass you take me for." "I have only your word for that," she returned, striking without pity because for a second he had startled her out of her contemptuous attitude.
He looked at her in silence, and again her indignation arose full-armed against him.

How dared he--this clown in woman's clothes--speak to her at such a moment of that which she rightly held to be the holiest thing on earth?
"How can you expect me to believe you ?" she demanded.

"You tell me you are in earnest.