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LIBRARY OF THE WORLD'S BEST MYSTERY AND DETECTIVE STORIES
One Hundred and One Tales of Mystery By Famous Authors of East and West
AMERICAN :: FRENCH, ITALIAN, ETC. ENGLISH: SCOTCH :: GERMAN, RUSSIAN, ETC. ENGLISH: IRISH :: ORIENTAL: MODERN MAGIC
MAUPASSANT VOLTAIRE MILLE ALARÇON ADAM CAPUANA ERCKMANN-CHATRIAN APULEIUS BALZAC PLINY, THE YOUNGER
[Illustration: "Through a Mist in the Depths of the Looking-Glass." To illustrate "The Horla," by Guy de Maupassant]
HENRI RENÉ ALBERT GUY DE MAUPASSANT (1850-93). The Necklace The Man with the Pale Eyes An Uncomfortable Bed Ghosts Fear The Confession The Horla
VILLIERS DE L'ISLE ADAM. The Torture by Hope
ERCKMANN-CHATRIAN (1822-99)--(1826-90). The Owl's Ear The Invisible Eye The Waters of Death
HONORE DE BALZAC (1799-1850). Melmoth Reconciled The Conscript
JEAN FRANCOIS MARIE AROUET DE VOLTAIRE (1694-1778). Zadig the Babylonian
LUCIUS APULEIUS (Second Century). The Adventure of the Three Robbers
PLINY, THE YOUNGER (First Century). Letter to Sura
_French--Italian--Spanish--Latin Mystery Stories_
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, instinct for what is elegant, suppleness of wit, are the sole hierarchy, and make from women of the people the equals of the very greatest ladies.
She suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born for all the delicacies and all the luxuries. She suffered from the poverty of her dwelling, from the wretched look of the walls, from the worn-out chairs, from 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 regrets which were despairing, and distracted dreams. She thought of the silent antechambers hung with Oriental tapestry, lit by tall bronze candelabra, and of the two great footmen in knee breeches who sleep in the big armchairs, made drowsy by the heavy warmth of the hot-air stove. She thought of the long _salons_ fatted up with ancient silk, of the delicate furniture carrying priceless curiosities, and of the coquettish perfumed boudoirs made for talks at five o'clock with intimate friends, with men famous and sought after, whom all women envy and whose attention they all desire.