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who were wrapping themselves in expensive furs.

Loisel held her back.

“Wait a moment, you’ll catch a cold outside. I’ll go and find a cab.”

But she would not listen to him, and ran down the stairs. When they were finally in
the street, they could not find a cab, and began to look for one, shouting at the cabmen
they saw passing in the distance.

They walked down toward the Seine in despair, shivering with cold. At last they found

on the quay one of those old night cabs that one sees in Paris only after dark, as if they
were ashamed to show their shabbiness during the day.

They were dropped off at their door in the Rue des Martyrs, and sadly walked up the
steps to their apartment. It was all over for her. And he was remembering that he had
to be back at his office at ten o’clock.

In front of the mirror, she took off the clothes around her shoulders, taking a final look
at herself in all her glory. But suddenly she uttered a cry. She no longer had the necklace
round her neck!

“What is the matter?” asked her husband, already half undressed.

She turned towards him, panic-stricken.

“I have ... I have ... I no longer have Madame Forestier’s necklace.”

He stood up, distraught.

“What! ... how! ... That’s impossible!”

They looked in the folds of her dress, in the folds of her cloak, in her pockets, everywhere.
But they could not find it.

“Are you sure you still had it on when you left the ball?” he asked.

“Yes. I touched it in the hall at the Ministry.”

“But if you had lost it in the street we would have heard it fall. It must be in the cab.”

“Yes. That’s probably it. Did you take his number?”

“No. And you, didn’t you notice it?”

“No.”
What you Think?ou Think?
They stared at each other, stunned. At last Loisel put his What y
clothes on again. Madame Loisel was a

“I’m going back,” he said, “over the whole route we walked, success. Discuss.
see if I can find it.”

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The English Carnival-7