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