"I'm not afraid—how dare you say so?"
"Oh, my pretty, how foolish we are, both of us! I'd work my fingers to the bone for you, Molly, I'd lie down and let your little feet walk over me if they wanted to—I'd shed my life's blood for you, day by day, if it could help you."
"Every one of you say this in the beginning, but it isn't true in the end," she answered.
"Not true—not true? Prove it. Why do you think I've struggled and raised myself except to keep equal with you? Why did I go to school and teach myself and make money enough to take classes in Applegate? Just for you. All those winter afternoons when I drove over there to learn things, I was thinking of you. Do you remember that when you were at school in Applegate, you'd tell me the names of the books you read so that I might get them?"
"Don't," she cried fiercely, "don't tell me those things, for I'll never believe them! I'm hard and bitter inside, there's no softness in me. If I went on my knees and prayed to love, I couldn't do it. Oh, Abel, there isn't any love in my heart!"
"Do you remember when you kissed me?"
"No, I have forgotten."
"It was only three weeks ago."
"Yes, that was three weeks ago."
The light died slowly out of his eyes as he looked at her.