The Necklace 43

The Necklace “Yes, I felt it as we came out.” “But if you had lost it in the street, we should have heard it fall. It must be in the cab.” “Yes, it is possible. Did you take the number?” “No. And you, did you notice what it was?” “No.” They looked at each other utterly cast down. Finally Loisel dressed himself again. “I am going,” he said, “over the track where we went on foot, to see if I can find it.” And he went. She remained in her evening gown, not having the force to go to bed. Toward seven o’clock her husband returned. He had found nothing. He went to the police and to the cab offices, and put an advertisement in the newspapers, offering a reward. She waited all day in a state of bewilderment before this frightful disaster. Loisel returned in the evening, his face pale; he had discovered nothing. He said, “Write to your friend that you have broken the clasp of the necklace and that you will have it repaired. That will give us time.” She wrote as he dictated. At the end of a week, they had lost all hope. And Loisel, older by five years, declared, “We must replace this jewel.” In a shop of the Palais-Royal, they found a chaplet of diamonds, which seemed to them exactly like the one they had lost. It was valued at forty thousand francs. They could get it for thirty-six thousand. Loisel possessed eighteen thousand francs, which his father had left him. He borrowed the rest. He made ruinous promises, took money from usurers and the whole race of lenders. Then he went to get the new necklace, depositing on the merchant’s counter thirty-six thousand francs. When Mme Loisel took back the jewels to Mme Forestier, the latter said to her in a frigid tone, “You should have returned them to me sooner, for I might have needed them.”