The Project Gutenberg EBook of Original Short Stories of Maupassant,
Volume 11, by Guy de Maupassant

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Title: Original Short Stories, Volume 11 (of 13)

Author: Guy de Maupassant

Last Updated: February 13, 2009
Release Date: August 16, 2006 [EBook #3087]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAUPASSANT SHORT STORIES ***

Produced by David Widger

ORIGINAL SHORT STORIES, VOLUME 11 (of 13)

By Guy De Maupassant

Translated by:

ALBERT M. C. McMASTER, B.A.
A. E. HENDERSON, B.A.
MME. QUESADA and Others

VOLUME XI.

THE UMBRELLA
BELHOMME'S BEAST
DISCOVERY
THE ACCURSED BREAD
THE DOWRY
THE DIARY OF A MAD MAN
THE MASK
THE PENGUINS ROCK
A FAMILY
SUICIDES
AN ARTIFICE
DREAMS
SIMON'S PAPA

THE UMBRELLA

Mme. Oreille was a very economical woman; she knew the value of a
centime, and possessed a whole storehouse of strict principles with
regard to the multiplication of money, so that her cook found the
greatest difficulty in making what the servants call their market-penny,
and her husband was hardly allowed any pocket money at all. They were,
however, very comfortably off, and had no children; but it really
pained Mme. Oreille to see any money spent; it was like tearing at her
heartstrings when she had to take any of those nice crown-pieces out
of her pocket; and whenever she had to spend anything, no matter how
necessary it might be, she slept badly the next night.

Oreille was continually saying to his wife:

"You really might be more liberal, as we have no children, and never
spend our income."

"You don't know what may happen," she used to reply. "It is better to
have too much than too little."

She was a little woman of about forty, very active, rather hasty,
wrinkled, very neat and tidy, and with a very short temper.

Her husband frequently complained of all the privations she made him
endure; some of them were particularly painful to him, as they touched
his vanity.

He was one of the head clerks in the War Office, and only stayed on
there in obedience to his wife's wish, to increas