(Strip Number 4301, Original Publication Date, 17 February 1983)
Panel 1: Michael asks Elly what that noise was. She tells him that it was just a shovel banging against the side of the house.
Panel 2: He asks her if she was scared. She sets up the punchline by asking him if she looks scared.
Panel 3: She smiles when he says "I guess not." That's because she believes that he thinks that she's braver than she is.
Panel 4: She frowns the Gorey-eyed Frown Of Rage™ when he says that she looks like she usually does this time of night.
Summary: The problem with his candor is that she never really does anything to steer him towards treating her with respect. Never in the strip's history do any of her initiatives towards getting him to not wise off stick, Neither does any campaign that rotates around curing him of the notion that she's his slave.