The Necklace

Matilda Loisel was pretty but born into a clerk's family without dowry or hopes. She married a petty clerk yet felt born for luxury. She suffered from her shabby apartment and wept after visiting her rich friend Mme Forestier.

Mme Loisel was unhappy incessantly. She imagined elegant dinners and shining silver while her husband praised simple potpie. She had no frocks or jewels, only longing for them. A rich convent schoolmate, Mme Forestier, made her despair whenever she visited.

Her husband brought an invitation to a ball at the Minister's residence. Instead of delight, Matilda threw it down angrily - she had no dress. Her husband gave her four hundred francs he had saved for a hunting gun.

M. Loisel, a clerk in the Board of Education, hoped the invitation would please Matilda. She asked bitterly what she could wear. After she controlled her tears, he agreed to four hundred francs for a simple dress usable on other occasions - money he had saved for summer hunting with friends.

As the ball neared, Matilda was anxious - she had no jewels. Her husband told her to borrow from Mme Forestier. She chose a superb diamond necklace from a black satin box and embraced her friend with passion.

Matilda feared looking poverty-stricken among rich women. Natural flowers would not do. At Mme Forestier's she hesitated over bracelets and pearls until she discovered a necklace of diamonds that made her ecstatic. She borrowed only that piece and left with her treasure.

At the ball Mme Loisel was the prettiest woman - elegant, gracious, and admired. She danced with joy until four in the morning. Leaving in modest wraps beside rich furs, they walked far seeking a cab in the cold.

She enjoyed complete social victory; men asked to be introduced. Her husband dozed since midnight in a salon. In the street no carriage came; they found an old night cab and climbed wearily to their apartment. She wanted one last look in the mirror at her glory.

Before the mirror she screamed - the necklace was gone. They searched dress, cloak, and pockets. Loisel went on foot along their route; police and cab offices found nothing. He told her to write that the clasp was broken and being repaired.

Panic filled the night. Loisel searched the streets; Matilda waited in her gown. After a week hope vanished. They decided they must replace the jewel. In a shop at the Palais-Royal they found a chaplet like the lost one for thirty-six thousand francs.

Loisel used eighteen thousand francs inheritance and borrowed the rest from usurers. They dismissed the maid, moved to an attic, and Matilda did all heavy housework. He copied books at night. After ten years the debt was paid - Matilda looked old and rough.

Mme Loisel heroically paid the frightful debt. She haggled at grocers and butchers, washed linen, carried water up stairs, and dressed like a poor woman. Her husband worked evenings and copied at five sous a page. She returned the replacement necklace without Mme Forestier opening the case.

One Sunday Matilda met Mme Forestier, still pretty, on the Champs-Elysees. She told her friend the truth - the lost necklace had been replaced at great cost for ten years. Mme Forestier said her original diamonds were false, worth only five hundred francs.

Matilda, now hardened by labour, greeted Jeanne Forestier, who did not recognise her. Proudly Matilda explained how they bought a real diamond necklace to replace the lost one. Mme Forestier, touched and shocked, revealed that her lent necklace was paste - worth at most five hundred francs. Life's irony struck Matilda at last.