ght gain through this unexpected
situation, the forced loan, the inevitable blackmail, he flung himself on
the lounge and laughed so heartily that the piece of furniture creaked
all over.

The three young ladies, rising simultaneously, made their escape, while
the older woman retreated to the door looking as though she were about to
faint.

And then two gentlemen appeared in evening dress, and wearing the ribbon
of an order. Padoie rushed up to them.

"Oh, judge--he is crazy, he is crazy. He was sent to us as a
convalescent. You can see that he is crazy."

Varajou was sitting up now, and not being able to understand it all, he
guessed that he had committed some monstrous folly. Then he rose, and
turning to his brother-in-law, said:

"What house is this?"

But Padoie, becoming suddenly furious, stammered out:

"What house--what--what house is this? Wretch--scoundrel--villain--what
house, indeed? The house of the judge--of the judge of the Supreme
Court--of the Supreme Court--of the Supreme Court--Oh, oh--rascal!
--rascal!--rascal!"

THE DIAMOND NECKLACE

The girl was one of those pretty and charming young creatures who
sometimes are born, as if by a slip of fate, into a family of clerks. She
had no dowry, no expectations, no way of being known, understood, loved,
married by any rich and distinguished man; so she let herself be married
to a little clerk of the Ministry of Public Instruction.

She dressed plainly because she could not dress well, but she was unhappy
as if she had really fallen from a higher station; since with women there
is neither caste nor rank, for beauty, grace and charm take the place of
family and birth. Natural ingenuity, instinct for what is elegant, a
supple mind are their sole hierarchy, and often make of women of the
people the equals of the very greatest ladies.

Mathilde suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born to enjoy all
delicacies and all luxuries. She was distressed at the poverty of her
dwelling, at the bareness of the walls, at the shabby chairs, the
ugliness of the curtains. All those things, of which another woman of her
rank would never even have been conscious, tortured her and made her
angry. The sight of the little Breton peasant who did her humble
housework aroused in her despairing regrets and bewildering dreams. She
thought of silent antechambers hung with Oriental tapestry, illumined by
tall bronze candelabra, and of two great footmen in knee breeches wh