The Necklace

Mathilde was a pretty, charming woman, but she had been born into a poor family and had married a clerk with a small salary.She had always believed she deserved a life of luxury, and her plain flat, with its worn chairs and ugly curtains, made her unhappy every day.She had one rich friend from her school days, Madame Forestier, but visiting her hurt so much that she rarely went.

One evening her husband came home proudly with an invitation to a grand party at the Ministry where he worked.Instead of being pleased, Mathilde began to cry, because she had no fine dress to wear.Her husband gave her the four hundred francs he had been saving for a gun, and she bought a beautiful gown.

Still she was not happy, because she had no jewels, and she did not want to look poor among rich women.Her husband told her to borrow something from Madame Forestier, so Mathilde went to her the next day.Among her friend's jewels she found a magnificent diamond necklace, and she borrowed it with a beating heart.

At the party Mathilde was the most beautiful woman in the room; everyone looked at her, and she danced all night, lost in joy.They reached home at four in the morning, and in front of the mirror she saw that the necklace was gone from her neck.They searched everywhere and told the police, but the diamonds were never found.

In a shop they found a necklace exactly like it, priced at thirty-six thousand francs.Loisel used the little money his father had left him and borrowed the rest from money-lenders, promising to pay far more back.They gave the new necklace to Madame Forestier, who did not open the case, and then began ten hard years of paying back the debt.

Mathilde learned to scrub floors, wash clothes, and argue over every coin; she grew old, hard, and strong, like any woman of a poor household.One day she met Madame Forestier, still young and lovely, and told her the whole story at last — and her friend, taking her hands, said softly, "Oh, my poor Mathilde! My necklace was not real. It was worth five hundred francs at most."