Library of the Worlds Best Mystery and Detective Stories | Page 2

back.
But, one evening, her husband returned home with a triumphant air,
and holding a large envelope in his hand.
"There," said he, "here is something for you."
She tore the paper sharply, and drew out a printed card which bore

these words:
"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 on Monday evening, January 18th."
Instead of being delighted, as her husband hoped, she threw the
invitation on the table with disdain, murmuring:
"What do you want me to do with that?"
"But, my dear, I thought you would be glad. You never go out, and this
is such a fine opportunity. I had awful trouble to get it. Everyone 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 eye, and she said, impatiently:
"And what do you want me to put on my back?"
He had not thought of that; he stammered:
"Why, the dress you go to the theater in. It looks very well, to me."
He stopped, distracted, seeing that his wife was crying. Two great tears
descended slowly from the corners of her eyes toward the corners of
her mouth. He stuttered:
"What's the matter? What's the matter?"
But, by a violent effort, she had conquered her grief, and she replied,
with a calm voice, while she wiped her wet cheeks:
"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."
He was in despair. He resumed:

"Come, let us see, Mathilde. How much would it cost, a suitable dress,
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, hesitatingly:
"I don't know exactly, but I think I could manage it with four hundred
francs."
He had grown 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 down
there of a Sunday.
But he said:
"All right. I will give you four hundred francs. And try to have a pretty
dress."
The day of the ball drew near, and Mme. Loisel seemed sad, uneasy,
anxious. Her dress was ready, however. Her husband said to her one
evening:
"What is the matter? Come, you've been so queer these last three days."
And she answered:
"It annoys me not to have a single jewel, not a single stone, nothing to
put on. I shall look like distress. I should almost rather not go at all."
He resumed:
"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."
She was not convinced.

"No; there's nothing more humiliating than to look poor among other
women who are rich."
But her husband cried:
"How stupid you are! Go look up your friend Mme. Forestier, and ask
her to lend you some jewels. You're quite thick enough with her to do
that."
She uttered a cry of joy:
"It's true. I never thought of it."
The next day she went to her friend and told of her distress.
Mme. Forestier went to a wardrobe with a glass door, took out a large
jewel box, brought it back, opened it, and said to Mme. Loisel:
"Choose, my dear."
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. She kept asking:
"Haven't you any more?"
"Why, yes. Look. I don't know what you like."
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.
Her hands trembled as she took it. She fastened it around her throat,
outside her high-necked dress, and remained lost in ecstasy at the sight
of herself.
Then she asked, hesitating, filled with anguish:
"Can you lend me that, only that?"

"Why, yes, certainly."
She sprang upon the neck of her friend, kissed her passionately, then
fled with her treasure.
* * * * *
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.