NCERT Book Class 10 English (Foot Prints Without feet) Chapter 7 The Necklace

The Necklace 7
Matilda is invited to a grand party. She
has a beautiful dress but no jewellery. She
borrows a necklace from a friend ... and
loses it. What happens then?

READ AND FIND OUT
• What kind of a person is Mme Loisel — why is she
always unhappy?
• What kind of a person is her husband?

S HE was one of those pretty, young ladies, born as if through an
error of destiny, into a family of clerks. She had no dowry, no hopes,
no means of becoming known, loved, and married by a man either
rich or distinguished; and she allowed herself to marry a petty
clerk in the office of the Board of Education. She was simple, but
she was unhappy.
She suffered incessantly, feeling herself born for all delicacies
and luxuries. She suffered from the poverty of her apartment, the
shabby walls and the worn chairs. All these things tortured and
angered her.
When she seated herself for dinner opposite her husband who
uncovered the tureen with a delighted air, saying, “Oh! the good potpie!
I know nothing better than that…,” she would think of elegant dinners,
of shining silver; she thought of the exquisite food served in marvellous
dishes. She had neither frocks nor jewels, nothing. And she loved only
those things.
She had a rich friend, a schoolmate at the convent, who she did not
like to visit — she suffered so much when she returned. She wept for
whole days from despair and disappointment.
One evening her husband returned elated bearing in his hand a
large envelope.
“Here,” he said, “here is something for you.”