Click "free sample" to read the whole book no need to purchase. Extract: HENRI REN ALBERT GUY DE MAUPASSANT The Necklace She was one of those pretty and charming girls who are sometimes as if by a mistake of destiny, born in a family of clerks. She had no dowry, no expectations, no means of being known, understood, loved, wedded, by any rich and distinguished man; and she let herself be married to a little clerk at the Ministry of Public Instruction. She dressed plainly because she could not dress well, but she was as unhappy as though she had really fallen from her proper station; since with women there is neither caste nor rank; and beauty, grace, and charm act instead of family and birth. Natural fineness, the instinct for what is elegant, and suppleness of wit, are the sole hierarchy and make women of the people the equals of the very greatest ladies