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And so they went from jeweler to jeweler, looking for an
necklace like the other one, consulting their memories, both
What you Think?ou Think?
sick with grief and anguish. What y
In a shop at the Palais Royal, they found a string of diamonds Why did she utter a

which seemed to be exactly what they were looking for. It was cry?
worth forty thousand francs. They could have it for thirty-six
thousand.

So they begged the jeweler not to sell it for three days. And they made an arrangement
that he would take it back for thirty-four thousand francs if the other necklace was found
before the end of February.

Loisel had eighteen thousand francs which his father had left for him. He would borrow

the rest.
And he did borrow, asking for a thousand francs from one man, five hundred from

another, five louis here, three louis there. He gave notes, made ruinous agreements,
dealt with usurers, with every type of money lender. He compromised the rest of his
life, risked signing notes without knowing if he could ever honor them, and, terrified
by the anguish still to come, by the black misery about to fall on him, by the prospect
of every physical privation and every moral torture he was about to suffer, he went to

get the new necklace, and laid down on the jeweler’s counter thirty six thousand francs.
When Madame Loisel took the necklace back, Madame Forestier said coldly,

“You should have returned it sooner, I might have needed it.”
To the relief of her friend, she did not open the case. If she had detected the substitution,

what would she have thought? What would she have said? Would she have taken her
friend for a thief?

From then on, Madame Loisel knew the horrible life of the very poor. But she played
her part heroically. The dreadful debt must be paid. She would pay it. They dismissed
their maid; they changed their lodgings; they rented a garret under the roof.

She came to know the drudgery of housework, the odious labors of the kitchen. She
washed the dishes, staining her rosy nails on greasy pots and the bottoms of pans. She

washed the dirty linen, the shirts and the dishcloths, which she hung to dry on a line;
she carried the garbage down to the street every morning, and carried up the water,
stopping at each landing to catch her breath. And, dressed like a commoner, she went
to the fruiterer’s, the grocer’s, the butcher’s, her basket on her arm, bargaining, insulted,
fighting over every miserable sou.

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