It was all very well in the mouth of the sprightly, sentimental Benoit;
it was hateful foolishness in Farette. Annette now came to her feet
suddenly, her pale face showing defiance, and her big brown eyes flicking
anger. She walked up to the miller and said: "You are old and ugly and a
fool. But I do not hate you; I hate Solime, my brother, for bringing you
here. There is the bill for the flour? Well, I will pay it myself--and
you can go as soon as you like."

Then she put on her coat and capote and mittens, and went to the door.
"Where are you going, Ma'm'selle?" cried Solime, in high rage.

"I am going to M'sieu' Medallion," she said.

Hard profane words followed her, but she ran, and never stopped till she
came to Medallion's house. He was not there. She found him at the
Little Chemist's. That night a pony and cart took away from the house
of Annette's father the chest of drawers, the bed, the bedding, the
pieces of linen, and the pile of yarn which had been made ready so long
against Benoit's coming. Medallion had said he could sell them at once,
and he gave her the money that night; but this was after he had had a
talk with the Cure, to whom Annette had told all. Medallion said he had
been able to sell the things at once; but he did not tell her that they
were stored in a loft of the Little Chemist's house, and that the Little
Chemist's wife had wept over them and carried the case to the shrine of
the Blessed Virgin.

It did not matter that the father and brothers stormed. Annette was
firm; the dot was hers, and she would do as she wished. She carried the
money to the miller. He took it grimly and gave her a receipt, grossly
mis-spelled, and, as she was about to go, brought his fist heavily down