"How do you know that you have any right to sit there and tell me that you take an interest in me?
How do you know that I am not married ?" He was not disconcerted.

He drawled slightly over his words when he answered.
"You wouldn't listen at me at all, ma'am; you cert'nly wouldn't stay an' listen to any speeches that you thought was pretty, if you was married," he said.

Plainly, he had not lost faith in the virtue of woman.
"But if I did listen ?" she questioned, her face crimson, though her eyes were still defiant.
He regarded her with pleased eyes.

"I've been lookin' for a weddin' ring," he said.
She gave it up in confusion.

"I don't know why I am talking this way to you," she said.