莫泊桑短篇小說集英文版

1. 急需莫泊桑簡介，內容簡短，中文和英文的都要，並且內容一致

【莫泊桑簡介】全名居基·德·莫泊桑(Guy de Maupassant 1850年8月5日－1893年7月6日) ：19世
莫泊桑於1850年8月出生在法國西北部諾曼底省狄埃卜城附近一個沒落的貴族家庭。他的祖輩都是貴族，但到他父親這一代時沒落了，父親做了交易所的經紀人。他的母親出身於書香門第，愛好文學，經常對文學作品發表議論，見解獨到。莫泊桑出生不久，他的父母由於經常鬧矛盾而分居了，他和母親住在海邊的一個別墅里。幼年時的莫泊桑喜歡在蘋果園里遊玩，在草原觀看打獵，喜歡和農民、漁夫、船夫、獵人在一起聊天、幹活，這些經歷使莫泊桑從小就熟悉了農村生活。從童年時代起，母親就培養他寫詩，到兒子成為著名作家時，她仍然是莫泊桑的文學顧問、批評者和助手，所以他的母親是他走上文學創作道路的第一位老師。另一位為莫泊桑走上文學道路打下基礎的是他13歲在盧昂中學學習時的文學教師路易·布耶。路易·布耶是一個著名的巴那派詩人，他經常指導莫泊桑進行多種體裁的文學創作。...
1870年，莫泊桑中學畢業後到巴黎入大學學習法律。這一年普法戰爭爆發，他應征入伍。在軍隊中，他親眼目睹了危難中的祖國和在血泊中呻吟的兵士，心裡十分難過，他要把自己的所見所聞寫下來，以激發人們的愛國熱情。1871年，戰爭結束後，莫泊桑退役回到巴黎。
1878年，他在教育部工作之餘開始從事寫作。那時，他的舅舅的同窗好友，大文學家福樓拜成為莫泊桑文學上的導師，他們兩人結下了親如父子的師徒關系。福樓拜決心把自己創作的經驗傳授給莫泊桑。莫泊桑非常尊重嚴師的教誨，每篇習作都要送給福樓拜審閱。福樓拜一絲不苟地為他修改習作，對莫泊桑的不少作品表示贊賞，但勸他不要急於發表。因此，在70年代裡，莫泊桑的著述很多，但發表的卻很少，這是他文學創作的准備階段。他以《羊脂球》(1880)入選《梅塘晚會》短篇小說集，一躍登上法國文壇，其創作盛期是80年代。10年間，他創作了6部長篇小說《一生》賣清(1883)、《俊友》(1885)、《溫 泉》(1886)、《皮埃爾和若望》、《像死一般堅強》（1889）、《我們的心》（1890）。這些作品揭露了第三共和國的黑暗內幕內閣要員從金融巨頭的利益出發，欺騙議會和民眾，發動掠奪非洲殖民地摩洛哥的帝國主義戰爭；抨擊了統治集團的腐朽、貪婪、爾虞我詐的荒淫無恥。莫泊桑還創作了350多部中短篇小說，在揭露上層統治者及其毒化下的社會風氣的同時，對被侮辱被損害的小人物寄予深切同情。
短篇的主題大致可歸納為三個方面第一是諷刺虛榮心和拜金主義，如《項鏈》、《我的叔叔於勒》；第二是描寫勞動人民的悲慘遭遇，贊頌其正直、淳樸、寬厚的品格，如《歸來》；第三是描寫普法戰爭，反映法國人民愛國情緒，如《羊脂球》。莫泊桑短篇小說布局結構的精巧。典型細節的選用、敘事抒情的手法以及行雲流水般的自然文筆，都給後世作家提供了楷模。
另外，他敏銳的觀察也是令人稱道的，自從他拜師福樓拜之後，每逢星期日就帶著新習作，從巴黎長途奔波到魯昂近郊的福樓拜的住處去，聆聽福樓拜對他前一周交上的習作的點評。福樓拜對他的要求非常嚴格，首先要求他敏銳透徹的觀察事物。莫泊桑遵從師教，逐漸善於發現別人沒有發現過和沒有寫過的特點」，後來，當他在談到作家應該細致、敏銳的觀察事物時，說必須詳細的觀察你想要表達的一切東西，時間要長，而且要全神貫注，才能從其中發現迄今還沒有人看到與說過的那些方面。為了描寫燒的很旺的火或平地上的一棵樹，我們就需要站在這堆火或這棵樹的面前，一直到我們覺得滲耐它們不再跟別的火焰和別的樹木一樣為止。」
一次，福樓拜還建議莫泊桑做這樣的鍛煉騎馬出去跑一圈，一兩個鍾頭之後回來，把自己所看到的一切記下來。莫泊桑按照這個辦法鍛煉自己的觀察力有一年之久。此外福樓拜還讓他聽街上的馬車聲來訓練觀察力。 1880年，莫泊桑的成名作《羊脂球》發表了，它使莫泊桑一鳴驚人，讀者稱他是文壇上的一顆新星。從此，他一躍登上了法國文壇。莫泊桑的絕大部分作品是從這時到1890年的10年間創作的。此間，他寫成短篇小說約300篇，長篇小說6部，還寫了3部游記、1部詩集及其它雜文。
莫泊桑的作品對後世產生了極中喊前大影響。除了《羊脂球》（1880）,這一短篇文庫中的珍品之外，莫泊桑還創作了包括《一家人》（1881）、《我的叔叔於勒》（1883）、《米隆老爹》（1883）、《兩個朋友》（1883）、《項鏈》（1884）及《西蒙的爸爸》、《珠寶》、《小步舞》、《珍珠小姐》等在內的一大批膾炙人口、思想性和藝術性完美結合的短篇佳作。 莫泊桑的長篇小說也達到比較高的成就。他共創作了6部長篇：《一生》（1883）、《俊友》（又譯《漂亮朋友》，1885）、《溫泉》（1886）、《皮埃爾和若望》（1887）、《像死一般堅強》（1889）和《我們的心》（1890），其中前兩部已列入世界長篇小說名著之林。
屠格涅夫認為他是19世紀末法國文壇上「最卓越的天才」。托爾斯泰認為他的小說具有「形式的美感」和「鮮明的愛憎」，他之所以是天才，是因為他「不是按照他所希望看到的樣子而是照事物本來的樣子來看事物」，因而「就能揭發暴露事物，而且使得人們愛那值得愛的，恨那值得恨的事物。」左拉：他的作品「無限地豐富多彩，無不精彩絕妙，令人嘆為觀止」。恩格斯：「應該向莫泊桑脫帽致敬。」
因為他的短篇馳名中外，他在長篇小說創作上的成就以至於因此被湮沒。其實，他不但是個短篇小說的高手，在長篇小說創作上也頗有建樹。他繼承了巴爾扎克、司湯達、福樓拜的現實主義傳統，在心理描寫上又開拓出新路。《漂亮朋友》就是他的一部長篇代表性作品。莫泊桑不滿足於短篇小說所取得的成就，在他聲譽鵲起後，他經常涉足上流社會，開闊了眼界，便想到從更廣闊的背景上去反映社會現實，長篇小說給他提供了一個得心應手的工具。從第一部長篇《一生》到第二部長篇《漂亮朋友》，他的筆觸已經從個人生活投向新聞界和政界，具有豐富得多的內容，堪稱一部揭露深刻、諷刺犀利的社會小說。
他勤奮地創作了一生，由於過度勞累得了精神錯亂症，後來被送進巴黎的一家瘋人院。1893年7月6日莫泊桑逝世，年僅43歲。
他雖然只活了43歲，卻留下了300多篇中短篇小說與6部長篇小說，而且在相當長的一段時期里，是帶病之軀進行寫作的，這已經是可令人驚嘆的了；何況，一兩個世紀以來，他的小說創作一直保持著不朽的藝術魅力。他在短篇小說方面的巨大成就，是他贏得了「世界短篇小說巨匠」的美名，他的長篇小說也擁有億萬讀者，並不斷被改編成電影，風靡全球。

2. 適合高中生讀的英文小說。

建議還是想看 安徒生和格林童話英文版
接下來可以看 小王子和書蟲系列
莫泊桑小說集，短篇的，不會枯燥
秘密花園
聖誕歡歌
金銀島
霧都孤兒
簡愛
茶花女
傲慢與偏見
魯賓遜漂流記
愛麗絲漫遊奇境記
如果喜歡哈利波特系列，也可以讀，關鍵就是興趣，我讀一本就不喜，不太愛魔幻吧....
希望滿意

3. 推薦幾本外國的短篇小說集!

莫泊桑短篇小說集
契訶夫短篇小說集
茨威格短篇小說集
馬克.吐溫短篇小說集
竊賊(阿·康帕尼爾)
情書(岩井俊二)
永遠佔有(格雷厄姆·格林)
化石街(島田莊司)
棋逢對手(西瑞爾·哈爾)
首領(卡拉維洛夫)
熱愛生命(傑克·倫敦)
螞蟻
(博里斯·維昂)
蠢豬
(馬萊巴)
品酒
(羅·達爾)
打不碎的雞蛋
(馬萊巴)
勞駕，快點！(圖戈依)
品酒
(羅·達爾)

4. 推薦幾本英文版外國名著適合高中生看得

哈姆雷特，堂吉訶德，巴黎聖母院，歐也妮葛朗台，復活，普希金詩選，泰戈爾詩選，莫泊桑短篇小說集，契訶夫短篇小說集，歐亨利短篇小說集…

5. 莫泊桑有沒有小說英文名是The Unknown

有啊，這在莫泊桑Maupassant的短篇小說集里，知名度不如他其他一些主要作品，如羊脂球等

6. 莫泊桑《珠寶》 故事英文簡介。

The middle class family londin woman has two kind of hobby for husband dissatisfaction, one is love the theatre, two love costume jewelry. One winter night she came back from the theatre, and was killed, and died of pneumonia a week later. Zhuo in financial Lang Dan Mr. hard pressed trapped embarrassment among, nasty, decided idea to sell things, for a few francs to live. He first thought is the wife who annoy him fake jewelry, decided to sell her seems to be particularly fond of the string of big necklace, because the fake things work but also sophisticated estimated value may be seven or eight francs. How to get the fake jewelry jewelry store was found to be true valuation, jewelry, londin stunned and shocked. When he took the jewelry to another shop, the shop owner recognized the jewelry as they were sold out in the shop. After the inquiry, check books, this is a really true jewelry. Mr. Lang Dan was so surprised Jane really mad, so go home a few times when the wrong way, finally unexpectedly fainted on the ground. Fortunately, there are passers-by carried him into the pharmacy, sent him home to wake up.
Sad, tired like a hammer blow, make him sleep to second days. He was unable to work again and again, and again, and again into the jewelry store, sold the necklace, and sold his wife's jewelry (almost all this shop sold) to the shop, resigned and told the chief, said he inherited a legacy of three hundred thousand francs, and announced to his colleagues that his plans for the future, and a few prostitutes mixed overnight. Half a year later he remarried, second wife of a woman but bad temper Shukutoku, let him suffer unspeakably.

7. 《莫泊桑短篇小說選》epub下載在線閱讀，求百度網盤雲資源

《莫泊桑短篇小說集》（[法] 居伊·德·莫泊桑）電子書網盤下載免費在線閱讀

資源鏈接：

鏈接：https://pan..com/s/1PnIEkVCylhARKJfG4rNguw

書名：莫泊桑短篇小說集

作者：[法] 居伊·德·莫泊桑

譯者：庄非

豆瓣評分：8.3

出版社：黑龍江科學技術出版社

出版年份：2018-3-1

內容簡介：

《莫泊桑中短篇小說集》為「世界短篇小說之王」、法國著名作家莫泊桑的中短篇小說作品集，為讀者呈現出法國當時的社會生活畫面，具有深刻的思想內涵和社會價值。通過閱讀小說，讓讀者感受其獨特的魅力。莫泊桑的短篇小說所描繪的生活面十分廣泛，它們共同構成了19世紀下半期法國社會一幅全面的世俗圖。在莫泊桑的小說中，當時社會現實中形形色色的現象無不有形象的描繪；社會各階層的人物都得到鮮明的勾畫；法國城鄉的風貌人情也都有生動的寫照。而在他廣泛的取材面上，有三個突出的重點，即普法戰爭、巴黎的小職員的生活和法國諾曼底地區的城鄉風光與軼事。

作者簡介：

莫泊桑，19世紀後半期法國優秀的批判現實主義作家，與契訶夫和歐．亨利並列世界三大短篇小說巨匠，對後世產生極大影響，被譽為「短篇小說之王」。 代表作有《漂亮朋友》、《羊脂球》、《項鏈》、《我的叔叔於勒》等，由其小說改編的電影風靡全球。

8. 莫泊桑項鏈對白

The Necklace

She was one of those pretty and charming girls born, as though fate had blundered over her, into a family of artisans. She had no marriage portion, no expectations, no means of getting known, understood, loved, and wedded by a man of wealth and distinction; and she let herself be married off to a little clerk in the Ministry of Ecation. Her tastes were simple because she had never been able to afford any other, but she was as unhappy as though she had married beneath her; for women have no caste or class, their beauty, grace, and charm serving them for birth or family, their natural delicacy, their instinctive elegance, their nimbleness of wit, are their only mark of rank, and put the slum girl on a level with the highest lady in the land.
She suffered endlessly, feeling herself born for every delicacy and luxury. She suffered from the poorness of her house, from its mean walls, worn chairs, and ugly curtains. All these things, of which other women of her class would not even have been aware, tormented and insulted her. The sight of the little Breton girl who came to do the work in her little house aroused heart-broken regrets and hopeless dreams in her mind. She imagined silent antechambers, heavy with Oriental tapestries, lit by torches in lofty bronze sockets, with two tall footmen in knee-breeches sleeping in large arm-chairs, overcome by the heavy warmth of the stove. She imagined vast saloons hung with antique silks, exquisite pieces of furniture supporting priceless ornaments, and small, charming, perfumed rooms, created just for little parties of intimate friends, men who were famous and sought after, whose homage roused every other woman's envious longings.
When she sat down for dinner at the round table covered with a three-days-old cloth, opposite her husband, who took the cover off the soup-tureen, exclaiming delightedly: "Aha! Scotch broth! What could be better?" she imagined delicate meals, gleaming silver, tapestries peopling the walls with folk of a past age and strange birds in faery forests; she imagined delicate food served in marvellous dishes, murmured gallantries, listened to with an inscrutable smile as one trifled with the rosy flesh of trout or wings of asparagus chicken.
She had no clothes, no jewels, nothing. And these were the only things she loved; she felt that she was made for them. She had longed so eagerly to charm, to be desired, to be wildly attractive and sought after.

< 2 >

She had a rich friend, an old school friend whom she refused to visit, because she suffered so keenly when she returned home. She would weep whole days, with grief, regret, despair, and misery.

*

One evening her husband came home with an exultant air, holding a large envelope in his hand.
"Here's something for you," he said.
Swiftly she tore the paper and drew out a printed card on which were these words:
"The Minister of Ecation and Madame Ramponneau request the pleasure of the company of Monsieur and Madame Loisel at the Ministry on the evening of Monday, January the 18th."
Instead of being delighted, as her husband hoped, she flung the invitation petulantly across the table, murmuring:
"What do you want me to do with this?"
"Why, darling, I thought you'd be pleased. You never go out, and this is a great occasion. I had tremendous trouble to get it. Every one wants one; it's very select, and very few go to the clerks. You'll see all the really big people there."
She looked at him out of furious eyes, and said impatiently: "And what do you suppose I am to wear at such an affair?"
He had not thought about it; he stammered:
"Why, the dress you go to the theatre in. It looks very nice, to me . . ."
He stopped, stupefied and utterly at a loss when he saw that his wife was beginning to cry. Two large tears ran slowly down from the corners of her eyes towards the corners of her mouth.
"What's the matter with you? What's the matter with you?" he faltered.
But with a violent effort she overcame her grief and replied in a calm voice, wiping her wet cheeks:
"Nothing. Only I haven't a dress and so I can't go to this party. Give your invitation to some friend of yours whose wife will be turned out better than I shall."
He was heart-broken.
"Look here, Mathilde," he persisted. "What would be the cost of a suitable dress, which you could use on other occasions as well, something very simple?"
She thought for several seconds, reckoning up prices and also wondering for how large a sum she could ask without bringing upon herself an immediate refusal and an exclamation of horror from the careful-minded clerk.

< 3 >

At last she replied with some hesitation:
"I don't know exactly, but I think I could do it on four hundred francs."
He grew slightly pale, for this was exactly the amount he had been saving for a gun, intending to get a little shooting next summer on the plain of Nanterre with some friends who went lark-shooting there on Sundays.
Nevertheless he said: "Very well. I'll give you four hundred francs. But try and get a really nice dress with the money."
The day of the party drew near, and Madame Loisel seemed sad, uneasy and anxious. Her dress was ready, however. One evening her husband said to her:
"What's the matter with you? You've been very odd for the last three days."
"I'm utterly miserable at not having any jewels, not a single stone, to wear," she replied. "I shall look absolutely no one. I would almost rather not go to the party."
"Wear flowers," he said. "They're very smart at this time of the year. For ten francs you could get two or three gorgeous roses."
She was not convinced.
"No . . . there's nothing so humiliating as looking poor in the middle of a lot of rich women."
"How stupid you are!" exclaimed her husband. "Go and see Madame Forestier and ask her to lend you some jewels. You know her quite well enough for that."
She uttered a cry of delight.
"That's true. I never thought of it."
Next day she went to see her friend and told her her trouble.
Madame Forestier went to her dressing-table, took up a large box, brought it to Madame Loisel, opened it, and said:
"Choose, my dear."
First she saw some bracelets, then a pearl necklace, then a Venetian cross in gold and gems, of exquisite workmanship. She tried the effect of the jewels before the mirror, hesitating, unable to make up her mind to leave them, to give them up. She kept on asking:
"Haven't you anything else?"
"Yes. Look for yourself. I don't know what you would like best."
Suddenly she discovered, in a black satin case, a superb diamond necklace; her heart began to beat covetously. Her hands trembled as she lifted it. She fastened it round her neck, upon her high dress, and remained in ecstasy at sight of herself.

< 4 >

Then, with hesitation, she asked in anguish:
"Could you lend me this, just this alone?"
"Yes, of course."
She flung herself on her friend's breast, embraced her frenziedly, and went away with her treasure. The day of the party arrived. Madame Loisel was a success. She was the prettiest woman present, elegant, graceful, smiling, and quite above herself with happiness. All the men stared at her, inquired her name, and asked to be introced to her. All the Under-Secretaries of State were eager to waltz with her. The Minister noticed her.
She danced madly, ecstatically, drunk with pleasure, with no thought for anything, in the triumph of her beauty, in the pride of her success, in a cloud of happiness made up of this universal homage and admiration, of the desires she had aroused, of the completeness of a victory so dear to her feminine heart.
She left about four o'clock in the morning. Since midnight her husband had been dozing in a deserted little room, in company with three other men whose wives were having a good time. He threw over her shoulders the garments he had brought for them to go home in, modest everyday clothes, whose poverty clashed with the beauty of the ball-dress. She was conscious of this and was anxious to hurry away, so that she should not be noticed by the other women putting on their costly furs.
Loisel restrained her.
"Wait a little. You'll catch cold in the open. I'm going to fetch a cab."
But she did not listen to him and rapidly descended the staircase. When they were out in the street they could not find a cab; they began to look for one, shouting at the drivers whom they saw passing in the distance.
They walked down towards the Seine, desperate and shivering. At last they found on the quay one of those old nightprowling carriages which are only to be seen in Paris after dark, as though they were ashamed of their shabbiness in the daylight.
It brought them to their door in the Rue des Martyrs, and sadly they walked up to their own apartment. It was the end, for her. As for him, he was thinking that he must be at the office at ten.
She took off the garments in which she had wrapped her shoulders, so as to see herself in all her glory before the mirror. But suddenly she uttered a cry. The necklace was no longer round her neck!

< 5 >

"What's the matter with you?" asked her husband, already half undressed.
She turned towards him in the utmost distress.
"I . . . I . . . I've no longer got Madame Forestier's necklace. . . ."
He started with astonishment.
"What! . . . Impossible!"
They searched in the folds of her dress, in the folds of the coat, in the pockets, everywhere. They could not find it.
"Are you sure that you still had it on when you came away from the ball?" he asked.
"Yes, I touched it in the hall at the Ministry."
"But if you had lost it in the street, we should have heard it fall."
"Yes. Probably we should. Did you take the number of the cab?"
"No. You didn't notice it, did you?"
"No."
They stared at one another, mbfounded. At last Loisel put on his clothes again.
"I'll go over all the ground we walked," he said, "and see if I can't find it."
And he went out. She remained in her evening clothes, lacking strength to get into bed, huddled on a chair, without volition or power of thought.
Her husband returned about seven. He had found nothing.
He went to the police station, to the newspapers, to offer a reward, to the cab companies, everywhere that a ray of hope impelled him.
She waited all day long, in the same state of bewilderment at this fearful catastrophe.
Loisel came home at night, his face lined and pale; he had discovered nothing.
"You must write to your friend," he said, "and tell her that you've broken the clasp of her necklace and are getting it mended. That will give us time to look about us."
She wrote at his dictation.

*

By the end of a week they had lost all hope.
Loisel, who had aged five years, declared:
"We must see about replacing the diamonds."
Next day they took the box which had held the necklace and went to the jewellers whose name was inside. He consulted his books.
"It was not I who sold this necklace, Madame; I must have merely supplied the clasp."
Then they went from jeweller to jeweller, searching for another necklace like the first, consulting their memories, both ill with remorse and anguish of mind.
In a shop at the Palais-Royal they found a string of diamonds which seemed to them exactly like the one they were looking for. It was worth forty thousand francs. They were allowed to have it for thirty-six thousand.

< 6 >

They begged the jeweller not to sell it for three days. And they arranged matters on the understanding that it would be taken back for thirty-four thousand francs, if the first one were found before the end of February.
Loisel possessed eighteen thousand francs left to him by his father. He intended to borrow the rest.
He did borrow it, getting a thousand from one man, five hundred from another, five louis here, three louis there. He gave notes of hand, entered into ruinous agreements, did business with usurers and the whole tribe of money-lenders. He mortgaged the whole remaining years of his existence, risked his signature without even knowing if he could honour it, and, appalled at the agonising face of the future, at the black misery about to fall upon him, at the prospect of every possible physical privation and moral torture, he went to get the new necklace and put down upon the jeweller's counter thirty-six thousand francs.
When Madame Loisel took back the necklace to Madame Forestier, the latter said to her in a chilly voice:
"You ought to have brought it back sooner; I might have needed it."
She did not, as her friend had feared, open the case. If she had noticed the substitution, what would she have thought? What would she have said? Would she not have taken her for a thief?

*

Madame Loisel came to know the ghastly life of abject poverty. From the very first she played her part heroically. This fearful debt must be paid off. She would pay it. The servant was dismissed. They changed their flat; they took a garret under the roof.
She came to know the heavy work of the house, the hateful ties of the kitchen. She washed the plates, wearing out her pink nails on the coarse pottery and the bottoms of pans. She washed the dirty linen, the shirts and dish-cloths, and hung them out to dry on a string; every morning she took the stbin down into the street and carried up the water, stopping on each landing to get her breath. And, clad like a poor woman, she went to the fruiterer, to the grocer, to the butcher, a basket on her arm, haggling, insulted, fighting for every wretched halfpenny of her money.
Every month notes had to be paid off, others renewed, time gained.

< 7 >

Her husband worked in the evenings at putting straight a merchant's accounts, and often at night he did ing at twopence-halfpenny a page.
And this life lasted ten years.
At the end of ten years everything was paid off, everything, the usurer's charges and the accumulation of superimposed interest.
Madame Loisel looked old now. She had become like all the other strong, hard, coarse women of poor households. Her hair was badly done, her skirts were awry, her hands were red. She spoke in a shrill voice, and the water slopped all over the floor when she scrubbed it. But sometimes, when her husband was at the office, she sat down by the window and thought of that evening long ago, of the ball at which she had been so beautiful and so much admired.
What would have happened if she had never lost those jewels. Who knows? Who knows? How strange life is, how fickle! How little is needed to ruin or to save!
One Sunday, as she had gone for a walk along the Champs-Elysees to freshen herself after the labours of the week, she caught sight suddenly of a woman who was taking a child out for a walk. It was Madame Forestier, still young, still beautiful, still attractive.
Madame Loisel was conscious of some emotion. Should she speak to her? Yes, certainly. And now that she had paid, she would tell her all. Why not?
She went up to her.
"Good morning, Jeanne."
The other did not recognise her, and was surprised at being thus familiarly addressed by a poor woman.
"But . . . Madame . . ." she stammered. "I don't know . . . you must be making a mistake."
"No . . . I am Mathilde Loisel."
Her friend uttered a cry.
"Oh! . . . my poor Mathilde, how you have changed! . . ."
"Yes, I've had some hard times since I saw you last; and many sorrows . . . and all on your account."
"On my account! . . . How was that?"
"You remember the diamond necklace you lent me for the ball at the Ministry?"
"Yes. Well?"
"Well, I lost it."
"How could you? Why, you brought it back."
"I brought you another one just like it. And for the last ten years we have been paying for it. You realise it wasn't easy for us; we had no money. . . . Well, it's paid for at last, and I'm glad indeed."

< 8 >

Madame Forestier had halted.
"You say you bought a diamond necklace to replace mine?"
"Yes. You hadn't noticed it? They were very much alike."
And she smiled in proud and innocent happiness.
Madame Forestier, deeply moved, took her two hands.
"Oh, my poor Mathilde! But mine was imitation. It was worth at the very most five hundred francs! . . . "