莫伯桑 项链的英文剧本

The Necklace

She was one of those pretty and charming girls born, as though fate had blundered over her, into a family of artisans She had no marriage portion, no expectations, no means of getting known, understood, loved, and wedded by a man of wealth and distinction; and she let herself be married off to a little clerk in the Ministry of Education Her tastes were simple because she had never been able to afford any other, but she was as unhappy as though she had married beneath her; for women have no caste or class, their beauty, grace, and charm serving them for birth or family, their natural delicacy, their instinctive elegance, their nimbleness of wit, are their only mark of rank, and put the slum girl on a level with the highest lady in the land

She suffered endlessly, feeling herself born for every delicacy and luxury She suffered from the poorness of her house, from its mean walls, worn chairs, and ugly curtains All these things, of which other women of her class would not even have been aware, tormented and insulted her The sight of the little Breton girl who came to do the work in her little house aroused heart-broken regrets and hopeless dreams in her mind She imagined silent antechambers, heavy with Oriental tapestries, lit by torches in lofty bronze sockets, with two tall footmen in knee-breeches sleeping in large arm-chairs, overcome by the heavy warmth of the stove She imagined vast saloons hung with antique silks, exquisite pieces of furniture supporting priceless ornaments, and small, charming, perfumed rooms, created just for little parties of intimate friends, men who were famous and sought after, whose homage roused every other woman's envious longings

When she sat down for dinner at the round table covered with a three-days-old cloth, opposite her husband, who took the cover off the soup-tureen, exclaiming delightedly: "Aha! Scotch broth! What could be better" she imagined delicate meals, gleaming silver, tapestries peopling the walls with folk of a past age and strange birds in faery forests; she imagined delicate food served in marvellous dishes, murmured gallantries, listened to with an inscrutable smile as one trifled with the rosy flesh of trout or wings of asparagus chicken

She had no clothes, no jewels, nothing And these were the only things she loved; she felt that she was made for them She had longed so eagerly to charm, to be desired, to be wildly attractive and sought after

< 2 >

She had a rich friend, an old school friend whom she refused to visit, because she suffered so keenly when she returned home She would weep whole days, with grief, regret, despair, and misery

One evening her husband came home with an exultant air, holding a large envelope in his hand

"Here's something for you," he said

Swiftly she tore the paper and drew out a printed card on which were these words:

"The Minister of Education and Madame Ramponneau request the pleasure of the company of Monsieur and Madame Loisel at the Ministry on the evening of Monday, January the 18th"

Instead of being delighted, as her husband hoped, she flung the invitation petulantly across the table, murmuring:

"What do you want me to do with this"

"Why, darling, I thought you'd be pleased You never go out, and this is a great occasion I had tremendous trouble to get it Every one wants one; it's very select, and very few go to the clerks You'll see all the really big people there"

She looked at him out of furious eyes, and said impatiently: "And what do you suppose I am to wear at such an affair"

He had not thought about it; he stammered:

"Why, the dress you go to the theatre in It looks very nice, to me "

He stopped, stupefied and utterly at a loss when he saw that his wife was beginning to cry Two large tears ran slowly down from the corners of her eyes towards the corners of her mouth

"What's the matter with you What's the matter with you" he faltered

But with a violent effort she overcame her grief and replied in a calm voice, wiping her wet cheeks:

"Nothing Only I haven't a dress and so I can't go to this party Give your invitation to some friend of yours whose wife will be turned out better than I shall"

He was heart-broken

"Look here, Mathilde," he persisted "What would be the cost of a suitable dress, which you could use on other occasions as well, something very simple"

She thought for several seconds, reckoning up prices and also wondering for how large a sum she could ask without bringing upon herself an immediate refusal and an exclamation of horror from the careful-minded clerk

< 3 >

At last she replied with some hesitation:

"I don't know exactly, but I think I could do it on four hundred francs"

He grew slightly pale, for this was exactly the amount he had been saving for a gun, intending to get a little shooting next summer on the plain of Nanterre with some friends who went lark-shooting there on Sundays

Nevertheless he said: "Very well I'll give you four hundred francs But try and get a really nice dress with the money"

The day of the party drew near, and Madame Loisel seemed sad, uneasy and anxious Her dress was ready, however One evening her husband said to her:

"What's the matter with you You've been very odd for the last three days"

"I'm utterly miserable at not having any jewels, not a single stone, to wear," she replied "I shall look absolutely no one I would almost rather not go to the party"

"Wear flowers," he said "They're very smart at this time of the year For ten francs you could get two or three gorgeous roses"

She was not convinced

"No there's nothing so humiliating as looking poor in the middle of a lot of rich women"

"How stupid you are!" exclaimed her husband "Go and see Madame Forestier and ask her to lend you some jewels You know her quite well enough for that"

She uttered a cry of delight

"That's true I never thought of it"

Next day she went to see her friend and told her her trouble

Madame Forestier went to her dressing-table, took up a large box, brought it to Madame Loisel, opened it, and said:

"Choose, my dear"

First she saw some bracelets, then a pearl necklace, then a Venetian cross in gold and gems, of exquisite workmanship She tried the effect of the jewels before the mirror, hesitating, unable to make up her mind to leave them, to give them up She kept on asking:

"Haven't you anything else"

"Yes Look for yourself I don't know what you would like best"

Suddenly she discovered, in a black satin case, a superb diamond necklace; her heart began to beat covetously Her hands trembled as she lifted it She fastened it round her neck, upon her high dress, and remained in ecstasy at sight of herself

< 4 >

Then, with hesitation, she asked in anguish:

"Could you lend me this, just this alone"

"Yes, of course"

She flung herself on her friend's breast, embraced her frenziedly, and went away with her treasure The day of the party arrived Madame Loisel was a success She was the prettiest woman present, elegant, graceful, smiling, and quite above herself with happiness All the men stared at her, inquired her name, and asked to be introduced to her All the Under-Secretaries of State were eager to waltz with her The Minister noticed her

She danced madly, ecstatically, drunk with pleasure, with no thought for anything, in the triumph of her beauty, in the pride of her success, in a cloud of happiness made up of this universal homage and admiration, of the desires she had aroused, of the completeness of a victory so dear to her feminine heart

She left about four o'clock in the morning Since midnight her husband had been dozing in a deserted little room, in company with three other men whose wives were having a good time He threw over her shoulders the garments he had brought for them to go home in, modest everyday clothes, whose poverty clashed with the beauty of the ball-dress She was conscious of this and was anxious to hurry away, so that she should not be noticed by the other women putting on their costly furs

Loisel restrained her

"Wait a little You'll catch cold in the open I'm going to fetch a cab"

But she did not listen to him and rapidly descended the staircase When they were out in the street they could not find a cab; they began to look for one, shouting at the drivers whom they saw passing in the distance

They walked down towards the Seine, desperate and shivering At last they found on the quay one of those old nightprowling carriages which are only to be seen in Paris after dark, as though they were ashamed of their shabbiness in the daylight

It brought them to their door in the Rue des Martyrs, and sadly they walked up to their own apartment It was the end, for her As for him, he was thinking that he must be at the office at ten

She took off the garments in which she had wrapped her shoulders, so as to see herself in all her glory before the mirror But suddenly she uttered a cry The necklace was no longer round her neck!

< 5 >

"What's the matter with you" asked her husband, already half undressed

She turned towards him in the utmost distress

"I I I've no longer got Madame Forestier's necklace "

He started with astonishment

"What! Impossible!"

They searched in the folds of her dress, in the folds of the coat, in the pockets, everywhere They could not find it

"Are you sure that you still had it on when you came away from the ball" he asked

"Yes, I touched it in the hall at the Ministry"

"But if you had lost it in the street, we should have heard it fall"

"Yes Probably we should Did you take the number of the cab"

"No You didn't notice it, did you"

"No"

They stared at one another, dumbfounded At last Loisel put on his clothes again

"I'll go over all the ground we walked," he said, "and see if I can't find it"

And he went out She remained in her evening clothes, lacking strength to get into bed, huddled on a chair, without volition or power of thought

Her husband returned about seven He had found nothing

He went to the police station, to the newspapers, to offer a reward, to the cab companies, everywhere that a ray of hope impelled him

She waited all day long, in the same state of bewilderment at this fearful catastrophe

Loisel came home at night, his face lined and pale; he had discovered nothing

"You must write to your friend," he said, "and tell her that you've broken the clasp of her necklace and are getting it mended That will give us time to look about us"

She wrote at his dictation

By the end of a week they had lost all hope

Loisel, who had aged five years, declared:

"We must see about replacing the diamonds"

Next day they took the box which had held the necklace and went to the jewellers whose name was inside He consulted his books

"It was not I who sold this necklace, Madame; I must have merely supplied the clasp"

Then they went from jeweller to jeweller, searching for another necklace like the first, consulting their memories, both ill with remorse and anguish of mind

In a shop at the Palais-Royal they found a string of diamonds which seemed to them exactly like the one they were looking for It was worth forty thousand francs They were allowed to have it for thirty-six thousand

< 6 >

They begged the jeweller not to sell it for three days And they arranged matters on the understanding that it would be taken back for thirty-four thousand francs, if the first one were found before the end of February

Loisel possessed eighteen thousand francs left to him by his father He intended to borrow the rest

He did borrow it, getting a thousand from one man, five hundred from another, five louis here, three louis there He gave notes of hand, entered into ruinous agreements, did business with usurers and the whole tribe of money-lenders He mortgaged the whole remaining years of his existence, risked his signature without even knowing if he could honour it, and, appalled at the agonising face of the future, at the black misery about to fall upon him, at the prospect of every possible physical privation and moral torture, he went to get the new necklace and put down upon the jeweller's counter thirty-six thousand francs

When Madame Loisel took back the necklace to Madame Forestier, the latter said to her in a chilly voice:

"You ought to have brought it back sooner; I might have needed it"

She did not, as her friend had feared, open the case If she had noticed the substitution, what would she have thought What would she have said Would she not have taken her for a thief

Madame Loisel came to know the ghastly life of abject poverty From the very first she played her part heroically This fearful debt must be paid off She would pay it The servant was dismissed They changed their flat; they took a garret under the roof

She came to know the heavy work of the house, the hateful duties of the kitchen She washed the plates, wearing out her pink nails on the coarse pottery and the bottoms of pans She washed the dirty linen, the shirts and dish-cloths, and hung them out to dry on a string; every morning she took the dustbin down into the street and carried up the water, stopping on each landing to get her breath And, clad like a poor woman, she went to the fruiterer, to the grocer, to the butcher, a basket on her arm, haggling, insulted, fighting for every wretched halfpenny of her money

Every month notes had to be paid off, others renewed, time gained

< 7 >

Her husband worked in the evenings at putting straight a merchant's accounts, and often at night he did copying at twopence-halfpenny a page

And this life lasted ten years

At the end of ten years everything was paid off, everything, the usurer's charges and the accumulation of superimposed interest

Madame Loisel looked old now She had become like all the other strong, hard, coarse women of poor households Her hair was badly done, her skirts were awry, her hands were red She spoke in a shrill voice, and the water slopped all over the floor when she scrubbed it But sometimes, when her husband was at the office, she sat down by the window and thought of that evening long ago, of the ball at which she had been so beautiful and so much admired

What would have happened if she had never lost those jewels Who knows Who knows How strange life is, how fickle! How little is needed to ruin or to save!

One Sunday, as she had gone for a walk along the Champs-Elysees to freshen herself after the labours of the week, she caught sight suddenly of a woman who was taking a child out for a walk It was Madame Forestier, still young, still beautiful, still attractive

Madame Loisel was conscious of some emotion Should she speak to her Yes, certainly And now that she had paid, she would tell her all Why not

She went up to her

"Good morning, Jeanne"

The other did not recognise her, and was surprised at being thus familiarly addressed by a poor woman

"But Madame " she stammered "I don't know you must be making a mistake"

"No I am Mathilde Loisel"

Her friend uttered a cry

"Oh! my poor Mathilde, how you have changed! "

"Yes, I've had some hard times since I saw you last; and many sorrows and all on your account"

"On my account! How was that"

"You remember the diamond necklace you lent me for the ball at the Ministry"

"Yes Well"

"Well, I lost it"

"How could you Why, you brought it back"

"I brought you another one just like it And for the last ten years we have been paying for it You realise it wasn't easy for us; we had no money Well, it's paid for at last, and I'm glad indeed"

< 8 >

Madame Forestier had halted

"You say you bought a diamond necklace to replace mine"

"Yes You hadn't noticed it They were very much alike"

And she smiled in proud and innocent happiness

Madame Forestier, deeply moved, took her two hands

"Oh, my poor Mathilde! But mine was imitation It was worth at the very most five hundred francs! "

这个本来就是小说，不是剧本的……

Necklace

The girl was one of those pretty and charming young creatures who sometimes are born, as if by a slip of fate, into a family of clerks She had no dowry, no expectations, no way of being known, understood, loved, married by any rich and distinguished man; so she let herself be married to a little clerk of the Ministry of Public Instruction

She dressed plainly because she could not dress well, but she was unhappy as if she had really fallen from a higher station; since with women there is neither caste nor rank, for beauty, grace and charm take the place of family and birth Natural ingenuity, instinct for what is elegant, a supple mind are their sole hierarchy, and often make of women of the people the equals of the very greatest ladies

Mathilde suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born to enjoy all delicacies and all luxuries She was distressed at the poverty of her dwelling, at the bareness of the walls, at the shabby chairs, the ugliness of the curtains All those things, of which another woman of her rank would never even have been conscious, tortured her and made her angry The sight of the little Breton peasant who did her humble housework aroused in her despairing regrets and bewildering dreams She thought of silent antechambers hung with Oriental tapestry, illumined by tall bronze candelabra, and of two great footmen in knee breeches who sleep in the big armchairs, made drowsy by the oppressive heat of the stove She thought of long reception halls hung with ancient silk, of the dainty cabinets containing priceless curiosities and of the little coquettish perfumed reception rooms made for chatting at five o'clock with intimate friends, with men famous and sought after, whom all women envy and whose attention they all desire

When she sat down to dinner, before the round table covered with a tablecloth in use three days, opposite her husband, who uncovered the soup tureen and declared with a delighted air, "Ah, the good soup! I don't know anything better than that," she thought of dainty dinners, of shining silverware, of tapestry that 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 marvellous plates and of the whispered gallantries to which you listen with a sphinxlike smile while you are eating the pink meat of a trout or the wings of a quail

She had no gowns, no jewels, nothing And she loved nothing but that She felt made for that She would have liked so much to please, to be envied, to be charming, to be sought after

She had a friend, a former schoolmate at the convent, who was rich, and whom she did not like to go to see any more because she felt so sad when she came home

But one evening her husband reached home with a triumphant air and holding a large envelope in his hand

"There," said he, "there is something for you"

She tore the paper quickly and drew out a printed card which bore these words:

The Minister of Public Instruction and Madame Georges Ramponneau

request the honor of M and Madame Loisel's company at the palace of

the Ministry on Monday evening, January 18th

Instead of being delighted, as her husband had hoped, she threw the invitation on the table crossly, muttering:

"What do you wish me to do with that"

"Why, my dear, I thought you would be glad You never go out, and this is such a fine opportunity I had great trouble to get it Every one wants to go; it is very select, and they are not giving many invitations to clerks The whole official world will be there"

She looked at him with an irritated glance and said impatiently:

"And what do you wish me to put on my back"

He had not thought of that He stammered:

"Why, the gown you go to the theatre in It looks very well to me"

He stopped, distracted, seeing that his wife was weeping Two great tears ran slowly from the corners of her eyes toward the corners of her mouth

"What's the matter What's the matter" he answered

By a violent effort she conquered her grief and replied in a calm voice, while she wiped her wet cheeks:

"Nothing Only I have no gown, and, therefore, I can't go to this ball Give your card to some colleague whose wife is better equipped than I am"

He was in despair He resumed:

"Come, let us see, Mathilde How much would it cost, a suitable gown, which you could use on other occasions--something very simple"

She reflected several seconds, making her calculations and wondering also what sum she could ask without drawing on herself an immediate refusal and a frightened exclamation from the economical clerk

Finally she replied hesitating:

"I don't know exactly, but I think I could manage it with four hundred francs"

He grew a little pale, because he was laying aside just that amount to buy a gun and treat himself to a little shooting next summer on the plain of Nanterre, with several friends who went to shoot larks there of a Sunday

But he said:

"Very well I will give you four hundred francs And try to have a pretty gown"

The day of the ball drew near and Madame Loisel seemed sad, uneasy, anxious Her frock was ready, however Her husband said to her one evening:

"What is the matter Come, you have seemed very queer these last three days"

And she answered:

"It annoys me not to have a single piece of jewelry, not a single ornament, nothing to put on I shall look poverty-stricken I would almost rather not go at all"

"You might wear natural flowers," said her husband "They're very stylish at this time of year For ten francs you can get two or three magnificent roses"

She was not convinced

"No; there's nothing more humiliating than to look poor among other women who are rich"

"How stupid you are!" her husband cried "Go look up your friend, Madame Forestier, and ask her to lend you some jewels You're intimate enough with her to do that"

She uttered a cry of joy:

"True! I never thought of it"

The next day she went to her friend and told her of her distress

Madame Forestier went to a wardrobe with a mirror, took out a large jewel box, brought it back, opened it and said to Madame Loisel:

"Choose, my dear"

She saw first some bracelets, then a pearl necklace, then a Venetian gold cross set with precious stones, of admirable workmanship She tried on the ornaments before the mirror, hesitated and could not make up her mind to part with them, to give them back She kept asking:

"Haven't you any more"

"Why, yes Look further; I don't know what you like"

Suddenly she discovered, in a black satin box, a superb diamond necklace, and her heart throbbed with an immoderate desire Her hands trembled as she took it She fastened it round her throat, outside her high-necked waist, and was lost in ecstasy at her reflection in the mirror

Then she asked, hesitating, filled with anxious doubt:

"Will you lend me this, only this"

"Why, yes, certainly"

She threw her arms round her friend's neck, kissed her passionately, then fled with her treasure

The night of the ball arrived Madame Loisel was a great success She was prettier than any other woman present, elegant, graceful, smiling and wild with joy All the men looked at her, asked her name, sought to be introduced All the attaches of the Cabinet wished to waltz with her She was remarked by the minister himself

She danced with rapture, with passion, intoxicated by pleasure, forgetting all in the triumph of her beauty, in the glory of her success, in a sort of cloud of happiness comprised of all this homage, admiration, these awakened desires and of that sense of triumph which is so sweet to woman's heart

She left the ball about four o'clock in the morning Her husband had been sleeping since midnight in a little deserted anteroom with three other gentlemen whose wives were enjoying the ball

He threw over her shoulders the wraps he had brought, the modest wraps of common life, the poverty of which contrasted with the elegance of the ball dress She felt this and wished to escape so as not to be remarked by the other women, who were enveloping themselves in costly furs

Loisel held her back, saying: "Wait a bit You will catch cold outside I will call a cab"

But she did not listen to him and rapidly descended the stairs When they reached the street they could not find a carriage and began to look for one, shouting after the cabmen passing at a distance

They went toward the Seine in despair, shivering with cold At last they found on the quay one of those ancient night cabs which, as though they were ashamed to show their shabbiness during the day, are never seen round Paris until after dark

It took them to their dwelling in the Rue des Martyrs, and sadly they mounted the stairs to their flat All was ended for her As to him, he reflected that he must be at the ministry at ten o'clock that morning

She removed her wraps before the glass so as to see herself once more in all her glory But suddenly she uttered a cry She no longer had the necklace around her neck!

"What is the matter with you" demanded her husband, already half undressed

She turned distractedly toward him

"I have--I have--I've lost Madame Forestier's necklace," she cried

He stood up, bewildered

"What!--how Impossible!"

They looked among the folds of her skirt, of her cloak, in her pockets, everywhere, but did not find it

"You're sure you had it on when you left the ball" he asked

"Yes, I felt it in the vestibule of the minister's house"

"But if you had lost it in the street we should have heard it fall It must be in the cab"

"Yes, probably Did you take his number"

"No And you--didn't you notice it"

"No"

They looked, thunderstruck, at each other At last Loisel put on his clothes

"I shall go back on foot," said he, "over the whole route, to see whether I can find it"

He went out She sat waiting on a chair in her ball dress, without strength to go to bed, overwhelmed, without any fire, without a thought

Her husband returned about seven o'clock He had found nothing

He went to 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 least spark of hope

She waited all day, in the same condition of mad fear before this terrible calamity

Loisel returned at night with a hollow, pale face He had discovered nothing

"You must write to your friend," said he, "that you have broken the clasp of her necklace and that you are having it mended That will give us time to turn round"

She wrote at his dictation

At the end of a week they had lost all hope Loisel, who had aged five years, declared:

"We must consider how to replace that ornament"

The next day they took the box that had contained it and went to the jeweler whose name was found within He consulted his books

"It was not I, madame, who sold that necklace; I must simply have furnished the case"

Then they went from jeweler to jeweler, searching for a necklace like the other, trying to recall it, both sick with chagrin and grief

They found, in a shop at the Palais Royal, a string of diamonds that seemed to them exactly like the one they had lost It was worth forty thousand francs They could have it for thirty-six

So they begged the jeweler not to sell it for three days yet And they made a bargain that he should buy it back for thirty-four thousand francs, in case they should find the lost necklace before the end of February

Loisel possessed eighteen thousand francs which his father had left him He would borrow the rest

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 signing a note without even knowing whether he could meet it; and, frightened by the trouble yet to come, by the black misery that was about to fall upon him, by the prospect of all the physical privations and moral tortures that he was to suffer, he went to get the new necklace, laying upon the jeweler's counter thirty-six thousand francs

When Madame Loisel took back the necklace Madame Forestier said to her with a chilly manner:

"You should have returned it sooner; I might have needed it"

She did not open the case, as her friend had so much feared If she had detected the substitution, what would she have thought, what would she have said Would she not have taken Madame Loisel for a thief

Thereafter Madame Loisel knew the horrible existence of the needy She bore her part, however, with sudden heroism That dreadful debt must be paid She would pay it They dismissed their servant; they changed their lodgings; they rented a garret under the roof

She came to know what heavy housework meant and the odious cares of the kitchen She washed the dishes, using her dainty fingers and rosy nails on greasy pots and pans She washed the soiled linen, the shirts and the dishcloths, which she dried upon a line; she carried the slops down to the street every morning and carried up the water, stopping for breath at every landing And dressed like a woman of the people, she went to the fruiterer, the grocer, the butcher, a basket on her arm, bargaining, meeting with impertinence, defending her miserable money, sou by sou

Every month they had to meet some notes, renew others, obtain more time

Her husband worked evenings, making up a tradesman's accounts, and late at night he often copied manuscript for five sous a page

This life lasted ten years

At the end of ten years they had paid everything, everything, with the rates of usury and the accumulations of the compound interest

Madame Loisel looked old now She had become the woman of impoverished households--strong and hard and rough With frowsy hair, skirts askew and red hands, she talked loud while washing the floor with great swishes of water But sometimes, when her husband was at the office, she sat down near the window and she thought of that gay evening of long ago, of that ball where she had been so beautiful and so admired

What would have happened if she had not lost that necklace Who knows who knows How strange and changeful is life! How small a thing is needed to make or ruin us!

But one Sunday, having gone to take a walk in the Champs Elysees to refresh herself after the labors of the week, she suddenly perceived a woman who was leading a child It was Madame Forestier, still young, still beautiful, still charming

Madame Loisel felt moved Should she speak to her Yes, certainly And now that she had paid, she would tell her all about it Why not

She went up

"Good-day, Jeanne"

The other, astonished to be familiarly addressed by this plain good-wife, did not recognize her at all and stammered:

"But--madame!--I do not know--You must have mistaken"

"No I am Mathilde Loisel"

Her friend uttered a cry

"Oh, my poor Mathilde! How you are changed!"

"Yes, I have had a pretty hard life, since I last saw you, and great poverty--and that because of you!"

"Of me! How so"

"Do you remember that diamond necklace you lent me to wear at the ministerial ball"

"Yes Well"

"Well, I lost it"

"What do you mean You brought it back"

"I brought you back another exactly like it And it has taken us ten years to pay for it You can understand that it was not easy for us, for us who had nothing At last it is ended, and I am very glad"

Madame Forestier had stopped

"You say that you bought a necklace of diamonds to replace mine"

"Yes You never noticed it, then! They were very similar"

And she smiled with a joy that was at once proud and ingenuous

Madame Forestier, deeply moved, took her hands

"Oh, my poor Mathilde! Why, my necklace was paste! It was worth at most only five hundred francs!"

The Necklace

She was one of those pretty and charming girls born, as though fate had blundered over her, into a family of artisans She had no marriage portion, no expectations, no means of getting known, understood, loved, and wedded by a man of wealth and distinction; and she let herself be married off to a little clerk in the Ministry of Education Her tastes were simple because she had never been able to afford any other, but she was as unhappy as though she had married beneath her; for women have no caste or class, their beauty, grace, and charm serving them for birth or family, their natural delicacy, their instinctive elegance, their nimbleness of wit, are their only mark of rank, and put the slum girl on a level with the highest lady in the land

She suffered endlessly, feeling herself born for every delicacy and luxury She suffered from the poorness of her house, from its mean walls, worn chairs, and ugly curtains All these things, of which other women of her class would not even have been aware, tormented and insulted her The sight of the little Breton girl who came to do the work in her little house aroused heart-broken regrets and hopeless dreams in her mind She imagined silent antechambers, heavy with Oriental tapestries, lit by torches in lofty bronze sockets, with two tall footmen in knee-breeches sleeping in large arm-chairs, overcome by the heavy warmth of the stove She imagined vast saloons hung with antique silks, exquisite pieces of furniture supporting priceless ornaments, and small, charming, perfumed rooms, created just for little parties of intimate friends, men who were famous and sought after, whose homage roused every other woman's envious longings

When she sat down for dinner at the round table covered with a three-days-old cloth, opposite her husband, who took the cover off the soup-tureen, exclaiming delightedly: "Aha! Scotch broth! What could be better" she imagined delicate meals, gleaming silver, tapestries peopling the walls with folk of a past age and strange birds in faery forests; she imagined delicate food served in marvellous dishes, murmured gallantries, listened to with an inscrutable smile as one trifled with the rosy flesh of trout or wings of asparagus chicken

She had no clothes, no jewels, nothing And these were the only things she loved; she felt that she was made for them She had longed so eagerly to charm, to be desired, to be wildly attractive and sought after

< 2 >

She had a rich friend, an old school friend whom she refused to visit, because she suffered so keenly when she returned home She would weep whole days, with grief, regret, despair, and misery

One evening her husband came home with an exultant air, holding a large envelope in his hand

"Here's something for you," he said

Swiftly she tore the paper and drew out a printed card on which were these words:

"The Minister of Education and Madame Ramponneau request the pleasure of the company of Monsieur and Madame Loisel at the Ministry on the evening of Monday, January the 18th"

Instead of being delighted, as her husband hoped, she flung the invitation petulantly across the table, murmuring:

"What do you want me to do with this"

"Why, darling, I thought you'd be pleased You never go out, and this is a great occasion I had tremendous trouble to get it Every one wants one; it's very select, and very few go to the clerks You'll see all the really big people there"

She looked at him out of furious eyes, and said impatiently: "And what do you suppose I am to wear at such an affair"

He had not thought about it; he stammered:

"Why, the dress you go to the theatre in It looks very nice, to me "

He stopped, stupefied and utterly at a loss when he saw that his wife was beginning to cry Two large tears ran slowly down from the corners of her eyes towards the corners of her mouth

"What's the matter with you What's the matter with you" he faltered

But with a violent effort she overcame her grief and replied in a calm voice, wiping her wet cheeks:

"Nothing Only I haven't a dress and so I can't go to this party Give your invitation to some friend of yours whose wife will be turned out better than I shall"

He was heart-broken

"Look here, Mathilde," he persisted "What would be the cost of a suitable dress, which you could use on other occasions as well, something very simple"

She thought for several seconds, reckoning up prices and also wondering for how large a sum she could ask without bringing upon herself an immediate refusal and an exclamation of horror from the careful-minded clerk

< 3 >

At last she replied with some hesitation:

"I don't know exactly, but I think I could do it on four hundred francs"

He grew slightly pale, for this was exactly the amount he had been saving for a gun, intending to get a little shooting next summer on the plain of Nanterre with some friends who went lark-shooting there on Sundays

Nevertheless he said: "Very well I'll give you four hundred francs But try and get a really nice dress with the money"

The day of the party drew near, and Madame Loisel seemed sad, uneasy and anxious Her dress was ready, however One evening her husband said to her:

"What's the matter with you You've been very odd for the last three days"

"I'm utterly miserable at not having any jewels, not a single stone, to wear," she replied "I shall look absolutely no one I would almost rather not go to the party"

"Wear flowers," he said "They're very smart at this time of the year For ten francs you could get two or three gorgeous roses"

She was not convinced

"No there's nothing so humiliating as looking poor in the middle of a lot of rich women"

"How stupid you are!" exclaimed her husband "Go and see Madame Forestier and ask her to lend you some jewels You know her quite well enough for that"

She uttered a cry of delight

"That's true I never thought of it"

Next day she went to see her friend and told her her trouble

Madame Forestier went to her dressing-table, took up a large box, brought it to Madame Loisel, opened it, and said:

"Choose, my dear"

First she saw some bracelets, then a pearl necklace, then a Venetian cross in gold and gems, of exquisite workmanship She tried the effect of the jewels before the mirror, hesitating, unable to make up her mind to leave them, to give them up She kept on asking:

"Haven't you anything else"

"Yes Look for yourself I don't know what you would like best"

Suddenly she discovered, in a black satin case, a superb diamond necklace; her heart began to beat covetously Her hands trembled as she lifted it She fastened it round her neck, upon her high dress, and remained in ecstasy at sight of herself

< 4 >

Then, with hesitation, she asked in anguish:

"Could you lend me this, just this alone"

"Yes, of course"

She flung herself on her friend's breast, embraced her frenziedly, and went away with her treasure The day of the party arrived Madame Loisel was a success She was the prettiest woman present, elegant, graceful, smiling, and quite above herself with happiness All the men stared at her, inquired her name, and asked to be introduced to her All the Under-Secretaries of State were eager to waltz with her The Minister noticed her

She danced madly, ecstatically, drunk with pleasure, with no thought for anything, in the triumph of her beauty, in the pride of her success, in a cloud of happiness made up of this universal homage and admiration, of the desires she had aroused, of the completeness of a victory so dear to her feminine heart

She left about four o'clock in the morning Since midnight her husband had been dozing in a deserted little room, in company with three other men whose wives were having a good time He threw over her shoulders the garments he had brought for them to go home in, modest everyday clothes, whose poverty clashed with the beauty of the ball-dress She was conscious of this and was anxious to hurry away, so that she should not be noticed by the other women putting on their costly furs

Loisel restrained her

"Wait a little You'll catch cold in the open I'm going to fetch a cab"

But she did not listen to him and rapidly descended the staircase When they were out in the street they could not find a cab; they began to look for one, shouting at the drivers whom they saw passing in the distance

They walked down towards the Seine, desperate and shivering At last they found on the quay one of those old nightprowling carriages which are only to be seen in Paris after dark, as though they were ashamed of their shabbiness in the daylight

It brought them to their door in the Rue des Martyrs, and sadly they walked up to their own apartment It was the end, for her As for him, he was thinking that he must be at the office at ten

She took off the garments in which she had wrapped her shoulders, so as to see herself in all her glory before the mirror But suddenly she uttered a cry The necklace was no longer round her neck!

< 5 >

"What's the matter with you" asked her husband, already half undressed

She turned towards him in the utmost distress

"I I I've no longer got Madame Forestier's necklace "

He started with astonishment

"What! Impossible!"

They searched in the folds of her dress, in the folds of the coat, in the pockets, everywhere They could not find it

"Are you sure that you still had it on when you came away from the ball" he asked

"Yes, I touched it in the hall at the Ministry"

"But if you had lost it in the street, we should have heard it fall"

"Yes Probably we should Did you take the number of the cab"

"No You didn't notice it, did you"

"No"

They stared at one another, dumbfounded At last Loisel put on his clothes again

"I'll go over all the ground we walked," he said, "and see if I can't find it"

And he went out She remained in her evening clothes, lacking strength to get into bed, huddled on a chair, without volition or power of thought

Her husband returned about seven He had found nothing

He went to the police station, to the newspapers, to offer a reward, to the cab companies, everywhere that a ray of hope impelled him

She waited all day long, in the same state of bewilderment at this fearful catastrophe

Loisel came home at night, his face lined and pale; he had discovered nothing

"You must write to your friend," he said, "and tell her that you've broken the clasp of her necklace and are getting it mended That will give us time to look about us"

She wrote at his dictation

By the end of a week they had lost all hope

Loisel, who had aged five years, declared:

"We must see about replacing the diamonds"

Next day they took the box which had held the necklace and went to the jewellers whose name was inside He consulted his books

"It was not I who sold this necklace, Madame; I must have merely supplied the clasp"

Then they went from jeweller to jeweller, searching for another necklace like the first, consulting their memories, both ill with remorse and anguish of mind

In a shop at the Palais-Royal they found a string of diamonds which seemed to them exactly like the one they were looking for It was worth forty thousand francs They were allowed to have it for thirty-six thousand

< 6 >

They begged the jeweller not to sell it for three days And they arranged matters on the understanding that it would be taken back for thirty-four thousand francs, if the first one were found before the end of February

Loisel possessed eighteen thousand francs left to him by his father He intended to borrow the rest

He did borrow it, getting a thousand from one man, five hundred from another, five louis here, three louis there He gave notes of hand, entered into ruinous agreements, did business with usurers and the whole tribe of money-lenders He mortgaged the whole remaining years of his existence, risked his signature without even knowing if he could honour it, and, appalled at the agonising face of the future, at the black misery about to fall upon him, at the prospect of every possible physical privation and moral torture, he went to get the new necklace and put down upon the jeweller's counter thirty-six thousand francs

When Madame Loisel took back the necklace to Madame Forestier, the latter said to her in a chilly voice:

"You ought to have brought it back sooner; I might have needed it"

She did not, as her friend had feared, open the case If she had noticed the substitution, what would she have thought What would she have said Would she not have taken her for a thief

Madame Loisel came to know the ghastly life of abject poverty From the very first she played her part heroically This fearful debt must be paid off She would pay it The servant was dismissed They changed their flat; they took a garret under the roof

She came to know the heavy work of the house, the hateful duties of the kitchen She washed the plates, wearing out her pink nails on the coarse pottery and the bottoms of pans She washed the dirty linen, the shirts and dish-cloths, and hung them out to dry on a string; every morning she took the dustbin down into the street and carried up the water, stopping on each landing to get her breath And, clad like a poor woman, she went to the fruiterer, to the grocer, to the butcher, a basket on her arm, haggling, insulted, fighting for every wretched halfpenny of her money

Every month notes had to be paid off, others renewed, time gained

< 7 >

Her husband worked in the evenings at putting straight a merchant's accounts, and often at night he did copying at twopence-halfpenny a page

And this life lasted ten years

At the end of ten years everything was paid off, everything, the usurer's charges and the accumulation of superimposed interest

Madame Loisel looked old now She had become like all the other strong, hard, coarse women of poor households Her hair was badly done, her skirts were awry, her hands were red She spoke in a shrill voice, and the water slopped all over the floor when she scrubbed it But sometimes, when her husband was at the office, she sat down by the window and thought of that evening long ago, of the ball at which she had been so beautiful and so much admired

What would have happened if she had never lost those jewels Who knows Who knows How strange life is, how fickle! How little is needed to ruin or to save!

One Sunday, as she had gone for a walk along the Champs-Elysees to freshen herself after the labours of the week, she caught sight suddenly of a woman who was taking a child out for a walk It was Madame Forestier, still young, still beautiful, still attractive

Madame Loisel was conscious of some emotion Should she speak to her Yes, certainly And now that she had paid, she would tell her all Why not

She went up to her

"Good morning, Jeanne"

The other did not recognise her, and was surprised at being thus familiarly addressed by a poor woman

"But Madame " she stammered "I don't know you must be making a mistake"

"No I am Mathilde Loisel"

Her friend uttered a cry

"Oh! my poor Mathilde, how you have changed! "

"Yes, I've had some hard times since I saw you last; and many sorrows and all on your account"

"On my account! How was that"

"You remember the diamond necklace you lent me for the ball at the Ministry"

"Yes Well"

"Well, I lost it"

"How could you Why, you brought it back"

"I brought you another one just like it And for the last ten years we have been paying for it You realise it wasn't easy for us; we had no money Well, it's paid for at last, and I'm glad indeed"

< 8 >

Madame Forestier had halted

"You say you bought a diamond necklace to replace mine"

"Yes You hadn't noticed it They were very much alike"

And she smiled in proud and innocent happiness

Madame Forestier, deeply moved, took her two hands

"Oh, my poor Mathilde! But mine was imitation It was worth at the very most five hundred francs! "

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