ADÈLE. Pierre again, eh? That costs three sous. Where are they to come from, with only one tourist in the house for over two months?
DURAND. That's true enough, but it seems to me Annette might get the bread.
ADÈLE. That would ruin the credit of the house entirely, but you have never done anything else.
DURAND. Even you, Adèle?
ADÈLE. Even I am tired, though I have held out longest!
DURAND. Yes, you have, and you were still human when Thérèse and Annette cautioned me. You and I have pulled this house through since mother died. You have had to sit in the kitchen like Cinderella; I have had to take care of the service, the fires, sweep and clean, and do the errands. You are tired; how should it be with me, then?
ADÈLE. But you mustn't be tired. You have three daughters who are unprovided for and whose dowry you have wasted.
DURAND [Listening without]. Doesn't it seem as if you heard the sound of clanging and rumbling down toward Cully? If fire has broken out they are lost, because the wind is going to blow soon, the lake tells me that.
ADÈLE. Have you paid the fire insurance on our house?
DURAND. Yes, I have. Otherwise I would never have got that last mortgage.