"Prut " said Annot, her sabots clattering loudly on the brick floor as she moved more rapidly in her wrath. "Prut Madame Giraud, indeed There was a time, and it was but two years ago, that she was but plain Mere Giraud, and no better than the rest of us; and it seems to me, neighbors, that it is not well to show pride because one has the luck to be favored by fortune. Where, forsooth, would our 'Madame' Giraud stand if luck had not given her a daughter pretty enough to win a rich husband?"