The Necklace
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- She was one of those pretty and charming girls born, as if by an error of fate, into a family of clerks. She dressed plainly because she had never been able to afford anything better, but she was as unhappy as if she had once been wealthy.
- She thought of dainty dinners, of shining silverware, of tapestry which peopled the walls with ancient personages and with strange birds flying in the midst of a fairy forest; and she thought of delicious dishes served on marvelous plates, and of the whispered gallantries which you listen to with sphinx-like smile, while you are eating the pink flesh of a trout or the wings of a quail.
- When she sat down to dinner, before the round table, opposite her husband, who uncovered the soup tureen
- Ah, the good pot-au-feu! I don't know anything better than that.
- There is something for you.
- The Minister of Public Instruction and Mme. Georges Ramponneau request the honor of M. and Mme. Loisel's company at the palace of the Ministry of Monday evening, January 18th.
- And what do you want me to put on my back?
- Why, the dress you go to theater in. It looks very well to me.
- Nothing. Only, I have no dress, and therefore I can't go to this ball. Give your card to some colleague whose wife is better equipped than I.
- What's the matter? What's the matter?
- I don't know exactly, but I think I could manage it with four hundred francs.
- All right. I will give you four hundred francs. And try to have a pretty dress.
- Come, let us see, Mathilde. How much would it cost a suitable dress which you could use on other occasions, something very simple?
- The day the ball drew near, and Mme. Loisel seemed sad, uneasy, and anxious. Her dress was ready; however, she didn't have any jewelries to complete her look
- What is the matter? Come, you've been so queer these last three days.
- It annoys me not to have a single jewel, not a single stone, nothing to put on. I should almost rather not go at all.
- You might wear natural flowers. It's very stylish at this time of the year. For ten francs you can get two or three magnificent roses.
- No there's nothing more humiliating than to look poor among other women who are rich.
- Go look up your friend Mme. Forestier, and ask her to lend you some jewels.
- It's true. I never thought of it.
- She saw first of all some bracelets, then a pearl necklace, then a Venetian cross, gold, and precious stones of admirable workmanship. She tried on the ornaments before the glass, hesitated, could not make up her mind to part with them, to give them back.
- Choose, my dear.
- Why, yes. Look, I don't know what you like.
- Haven't you any more?
- She sprang upon the neck of her friend, kissed her passionately, then fled with her treasure.
- All of a sudden she discovered, in a black satin box, a superb necklace of diamonds; and her heart began to beat with an immoderate desire.
- Why, yes, certainly.
- Will you lend me this, only this?
- The day of the ball arrived. Mme. Loisel made a great success. She was prettier than them all, elegant, gracious, smiling, and crazy with joy. All the men looked at her, asked her name, endeavored to be introduced. All the attaches of the Cabinet wanted to waltz with her. She was remarked by the Minister himself.
- Thank God Madame Forestier lent me this necklace!
- What is the matter with you?
- I have—I have—I've lost Mme. Forestier's necklace.
- They looked in the folds of her dress, in the folds of her cloak, in her pockets, everywhere. They did not find it.
- What!—how?—Impossible!
- You're sure you had it on when you left the ball?
- Yes, I felt it in the vestibule of the palace.
- But if you had lost it in the street we should have heard it fall. It must be in the cab.
- No. And you, didn't you notice it?
- No.
- Yes. Probably. Did you take his number?
- I shall go back on foot, over the whole route which we have taken, to see if I can find it.
- You must write to your friend, that you have broken the clasp of her necklace and that you are having it mended. That will give us time to turn around.
- He went to the Police Headquarters, to the newspaper offices, to offer a reward; he went to the cab companies, everywhere, in fact, whither he was urged by the last suspicion of hope.
- We must consider how to replace the ornament.
- He did borrow, asking a thousand francs of one, five hundred of another, five louis here, three louis there. He gave notes, took up ruinous obligations, dealt with usurers and all the race of lenders. He compromised all the rest of his life, risked his signature without even knowing if he could meet it; and, frightened by the pains yet to come, by the black misery which was about to fall upon him, by the prospect of all physical privations and of all the moral torturers which he was to suffer, he went to get the new necklace, putting down upon the merchant's counter thirty-six thousand francs.
- That will take us years to replace that necklace!
- The jeweler said it would cost 40,000 francs to replace Madame Forestier's diamond necklace
- Ten years have passed, the couple was able to pay for everything. Mme. Loisel is almost unrecognizable because of all the hardships they went through. She often thought of how different her life would be if she didn't lose that diamond necklace
- But--madame!--I do not know---- You must have mistaken.
- Good-day, Jeanne.
- No. I am Mathilde Loisel.
- Oh, my poor Mathilde! How you are changed!
- Of me! How so?
- Yes, I have had days hard enough since I have seen you, days wretched enough, and that because of you!
- What do you mean? You brought it back.
- Do you remember that diamond necklace you lent me to wear at the ministerial ball? Well, I lost it.
- I brought you back another just like it. And for this we have been ten years paying. You can understand that it was not easy for us, us who had nothing. At last, it is ended, and I am very glad.
- You say that you bought a necklace of diamonds to replace mine?
- Yes. You never noticed it, then! They were very alike.
- Oh, my poor Mathilde! Why, my necklace was paste. It was worth at most five hundred francs!
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