‘So Mathilde is walking in the Champs Elysees, and she sees Jeanne, her old school friend. One day Mathilde is in the park … what is that park's name in Paris?’ But it has been hard, the work has taken its toll, and they are not young as they once were. Eventually, somehow, they manage to repay the debt. Mathilde must work cleaning houses, she takes in laundry and bargains with the grocer over the very last centime. Henri spends his nights making up tradesmen's accounts and copying manuscripts at five sous per page. They move to a smaller apartment, to a smaller apartment to a smaller apartment, the squalor growing with each step. No one will ever know of the terrible mistake that Mathilde has made. So they stall for time they visit every jeweller in Paris to locate a replacement finally, one is found, but … forty thousand francs! Monsieur Loisel empties all of his accounts, he begs, he borrows, he takes on ruinous debt until finally he is able to purchase the diamond necklace. They search everywhere, they retrace their steps, they return to the ballroom and examine every cranny and crevice but all to no avail: the necklace is gone.’ ‘They return home from the ball and Mathilde cannot find the necklace. But she shops and shops and shops until she finds a perfect dress on sale, finagles an appointment with the finest hairdresser in Paris and for the pièce de résistance she goes to a rich friend from her convent school days and she borrows a diamond necklace to wear for the night.’ She has nothing to wear, her hair is all wrong, and her jewellery simply will not do. And then one day they receive an invitation to a ball.’

Madame Loisel is young and pretty, and although they are not poor Mathilde feels that she is perhaps missing out on the finer things in life. Monsieur Loisel is a clerk in a government office and settled.

It concerns a married couple Mathilde and Henri Loisel. Every middle school student has to read it at some point.’ ‘This morning I was thinking of another nice story.’ Was it marked in your hands that you were not going to pull that cord? It was marked very clearly. I have to get Ravi to his Boy Scout meeting, so hopefully the traffic will clear up in a bit.’

Story the diamond necklace