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“Would you lend me this, just this?”

“Why, yes, of course.”

She threw her arms around her friend’s neck, embraced her
What you Think?ou Think?
rapturously, then fled with her treasure. What y

How does Mathilde
The day of the party arrived. Madame Loisel was a success. acquire a necklace for
She was prettier than all the other women, elegant, gracious, the party?
smiling, and full of joy. All the men stared at her, asked her

name, tried to be introduced.
All the cabinet officials
wanted to waltz with her.
The minister noticed her.

She danced wildly, with
passion, drunk on pleasure,

forgetting everything in the
triumph of her beauty, in
the glory of her success, in
a sort of cloud of happiness,
made up of all this respect,

all this admiration, all these
awakened desires, of that
sense of triumph that is so
sweet to a woman’s heart.

She left at about four o’clock
in the morning. Her husband

had been dozing since
midnight in a little deserted
anteroom with three other
gentlemen whose wives were
having a good time.

He threw over her shoulders

the clothes he had brought
for her to go outside in,
the modest clothes of an
ordinary life, whose poverty
contrasted sharply with the
elegance of the ball dress.

She felt this and wanted to run away, so she wouldn’t be noticed by the other women

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