McGraw©Hill/Focus/The Necklace p. 428////R7N24 ***** She was one of those pretty, charming girls, born by an

error of fate 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 famous; and she allowed herself to marry a petty

clerk in the office of the Ministry of Education. She dressed simply, not being able to afford fine clothes.

But she was as unhappy as one of her class, although women have

no set rank in society. Beauty and charm serve them in place of

birth and family. Their natural grace, good taste and wit give

them position, making some daughters of common people the equal

of great ladies. She suffered constantly, felling herself born for all

luxuries and niceties of life. She grieved over the bareness of

her apartment, the soiled walls, the worn chairs, the faded

curtains. All these things which another woman of her station

would not even have notice angered and irritated her. The sight

of the little Breton girl who did her humble housework, awoke in

her sad regrets and desperate daydreams. She thought of silent

entry©rooms with Oriental hangings, lighted by high bronze

torches, and of two footmen in knee breeches, who, made sleepy by

the heavy warmth of the central stove, napped in the large

armchairs, She dreamed of large drawing©rooms, hung in old

silks, of graceful pieces of fine furniture loaded with objects

of great value and of little perfumed stylish sitting rooms,

perfect for five o'clock chats with intimante friends and men

known and sought after, whose attention all women envied and

desired.