项链 莫泊桑
The Necklace
She was one of tho 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 herlf be married off to a little clerk in the Ministry of Education. Her tastes were simple becau 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 rving 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 herlf born for every delicacy and luxury. She suffered from the poorness of her hou, from its mean walls, worn chairs, and ugly curtains. All the 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 hou aroud heart-broken 唐伯虎是哪个朝代的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, who homage roud 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 rved in marvelous 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 the 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.
She had a rich friend, an old school friend whom she refud to visit, becau she suffered so 鸭血汤怎么做好吃keenly小恶魔简笔画 when she returned home. She would weep whole days, with 捎的组词grief, regret, despair, and miry.
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 the words:
"The Minister of Education and Madame Ramponneau request the pleasure of the company of Monsieur and Madame Loil 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 plead. You never go out, and this is a great occasion. I had tremendous trouble to get it. Every one wants one; it's very lect, and very few go to the clerks. You'll e all the really big people there."
She looked at him out of furious eyes, and said impatiently: "And what do you suppo I am to wear at such an affair?"
He had not thought about it; he stammered:
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"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.
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"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 who 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 u on other occasions as well, something very simple?"
She thought for veral conds, reckoning up prices and also wondering for how large a sum she could ask without bringing upon herlf an immediate refusal and an exclamation of horror from the careful-minded clerk.
At last she replied with some hesitation:
"I don't know exactly, but I think I could do it on four hundred francs."编一个童话故事
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.优秀的管理者>六级多少分
Nevertheless he said: "Very well. I'll give you four hundred francs. But try and get a really nice dress with the money."
