Give your card tosome colleague whose wife is better fitted out than me.
Very well. I will give you four hundred francs. But try to have a pretty dress.
I cannot tell exactly, but it seems to me that four hundred francs ought to cover it.
Could you lend me this? Only this?
Why, yes, certainly
A middle-class woman named Matilda dreams to live a life of luxury beyond her reach. She's never satisfied with what she has already. One day, her husband comes home with an invitation to attend a fancy party. Matilda, instead of being happy, starts crying. Upon asking her the reason, her husband finds out that she wants to attend but is distraught by her looks, as she didn't have a dress to wear.
Her husband asks her how much money she would require to buy a new dress, to which she replies by stating something around 400 francs. Though he hesitated at first as he was saving his money to buy a new gun, nevertheless, he gives her the 400 francs and asks her to buy herself something pretty.
Even though Matilda had a brand new dress, yet she was still not satisfied as she didn't have any jewels to adorn herself with. Her husband suggested her to borrow some jewels from her friend, Mme Forestier, since she was pretty wealthy. Matilda went to her friend's house and borrowed a diamond necklace from her.
I returned another to you exactly like it. And it has taken us ten years to pay for it. You can understand that it was not easy for us who have nothing. But it is finished and I am decently content.
Oh! My poor Matilda!Mine were false. They were not worth over five hundred francs!
On the day of the ball, Matilda was the prettiest of all — elegant, gracious, smiling and full of joy. All the men noticed her, asked her name, and wanted to be presented. She danced with enthusiasm, intoxicated with pleasure, thinking of nothing but all this admiration, this victory so complete and sweet to her heart. But on the way home, Matilda wasn't responsible enough and lost the necklace which she had borrowed from her friend.
After days of searching, she and her husband decide to replace it with a very expensive one that looked identical. Thereplacement costed 36,000 francs, which was way more than they could afford, and hence took loans from others. They worked hard for 10 years to repay the loan back. Matilda now knew the horrible necessity of life.
One day, Matilda meet Mme Forestier, and told her the truth about what really happened with the necklace which she loaned her. After listening to her story, Mme Forestier states that her necklace was fake and were hardly worth over 500 francs. Then the story ends, and the reader is left to contemplate further.