Story of the Month: Carlotta's Secret

It was four o'clock in the morning when the last of the guests departed. Jean Beraldi and his wife stood before the terrace of their spacious mansion, on their faces the traces of an artificial smile — that smile they had grown accustomed to affecting on many an evening throughout fifteen years of brilliant life.

Jean was still young; he stood erect, slender in his elegant dress. As for her, she was an Italian of alluring figure, radiating beauty in her gown of pure blue. The pearls of her necklace glittered on her pale neck like seashells on the sand. She wore no ornament but this pearl necklace and her diamond wedding ring. After the last motorcar had cast its silver beams over the palms of the garden, Jean Beraldi and his wife went indoors in silence and made their way with slow steps toward the great hall, which remained ablaze with lights. They halted before the dance floor, whose waxed surface showed the traces of this evening so full of life and dancing and champagne — traces like the furrows on the faces of the old... They sank into a long reverie, then cast a farewell glance at the painted ceilings, the chandeliers, and the mirrors, and moved away, walking on the tips of their toes as though they were walking in the house of one departed! This was the last party they would ever give, and that night was the last night they would spend in Monte Carlo, in this beautiful mansion where they had been happy after their own fashion, as people whose very home was wealth, and where they had drawn close to the most famous and richest personalities of the world — leaders, princes, and artists.

The suitcases stood in rows in the bedroom suite to which they went up... In a few hours one of their motorcars would carry them to the Blue Train bound for Paris, to spend twenty-four hours there completing the final preparations for the journey to Brazil, where Jean Beraldi was to carry out a scientific mission entrusted to him by the Prince of Monaco. Quite possibly they would never return to Europe again, unless fortune should smile on them anew...

Six months had passed since Jean Beraldi's bankruptcy. People knew that he had lost his fortune in a great business deal. He had been advised to sell what remained to him of goods and property at the time, when he could still have saved half his capital; but he refused and held out, like the gambler who feels his luck beginning to slip from between his fingers yet goes on gambling, believing that luck will come back to him at the last moment.

The blow was very harsh, and the Beraldis tried to hide it from people as far as they could. A friend made the matter easier for them by buying their mansion in Monte Carlo together with its precious contents, and then helping them sell the rest of their possessions in Paris to trustworthy persons. Then the Prince of Monaco invented the scientific mission that would allow Jean to vanish like a glittering meteor while still at the height of his glory — the mission that would enable him to earn his living in Brazil in a modest, honorable way. Jean and his wife preferred taking refuge in Brazil to humiliation and collapse... People knew, roughly, the truth of the situation; yet not one single person had been able to notice any change in the outward appearance of their life in this last period — and that, for them, was the most important thing of all.

Then several months passed after the banks notified Jean Beraldi that the sums remaining to him from the liquidation, which had allowed him to keep his life in balance, were on the point of running out. That was in the month of September, while the great newspapers published the news that his departure for Brazil would take place in the month of March, on a scientific mission of great moment... What a problem! How could they keep up the course of their luxurious life until that date, with the winter season coming on and bringing with it the social obligations and the expenses that could not be escaped if appearances were to be saved?.. Could they manage it by giving up two of their four motorcars, or by dismissing three servants of the eight? So Carlotta courageously decided to sell her precious jewels to one of the great jewelers, charging him to keep the matter secret. She was confident that people would not

notice, especially as she had made it her habit to adorn herself with her jewels only very rarely... Beraldi consented to his wife's decision with a heart torn by grief, fearing the sum would not suffice to carry him safely through this difficult period; but he made it a condition to Carlotta that she not sell the pearl necklace he had given her at their wedding. That precious necklace, which all his friends knew, was a clear symbol of his great fortune. Carlotta had worn it at most of the parties over which her husband had presided, and it was also very dear to him for the beloved memory it carried. All through the winter Beraldi went on delighting in the sight of the magical pearls at his wife's neck — those pearls which made others doubt the extent of his misfortune. The sight of them was a pleasant compensation for his fortune and a great solace to his pride.

Winter was at its end when they fell to talking of the splendor of this evening's party, which had rivaled in generosity and lavishness all the parties given on the coast that season. They spoke of the guests' delight, their honeyed comments, and the phrases of praise and flattery addressed to her, whose ring in their ears was a sweeter and more delightful melody than the music itself; and they were certain that no sign had shown on their faces of the grief that had been gnawing at their souls for long months — especially since most of the guests had come hoping to catch some small sign that would betray their bankruptcy and the fall of the catastrophe. And while Jean was talking with his wife in her room, he longed to ask her by what miracle she had managed to keep the material balance of their life until now, without giving up a motorcar, or a servant, or the purchase of bouquets of rare flowers every day?... The household expenses were her province alone, and the price of the jewels had been placed at her disposal in the banks six months before, after his old accounts had been exhausted. But when he compared the price of the jewels sold with the monthly allowance he used to give Carlotta in earlier days, he found a clear deficit over the past six months. How, then, had she got free of this material puzzle — she who had never borrowed in her life, nor ever been late in paying her accounts on time? At last he put out his cigarette and said to her:

— Carlotta, we must speak now of unpleasant matters... For weeks I have been very anxious about the balance of our budget. I want to be sure that we shall leave Europe owing not a penny to any creditor — I mean that we shall leave behind us a clean and good name...

She raised her beautiful black eyes toward him, and he read in them astonishment and reproach, and she said in a tone of pure wonder:

— What has put such thoughts into your head?! You know I cannot bear to be in debt to anyone for anything. Do you remember what I told you six months ago, when you showed me your distress at our material situation?

— Yes... and I was astonished that day at your firm assurance that we could hold out to the end without borrowing.

— And I promised you I would take this matter upon my own responsibility. I believe I have kept my promise. Is there anything you can complain of in the running of our life?

He answered at once:

— No! But it remains a dark mystery to me.

She said, knowing what was passing through his mind:

— Set your mind at rest, my dear. I assure you I have not borrowed, and I have not speculated, and the money we have will suffice to cover all the expenses of the journey; and there will remain to us a sum not to be despised, which will help us establish our life in Rio. I know our life must be modest there, but the monthly salary you will draw, together with what we have, will enable us to secure a very tolerable material life.

Jean said, jesting:

— Let me buy your secret — perhaps I can build a new fortune out of it!

She answered gravely:

— No! Do not try to clear up a matter that concerns no one but me.

Jean felt his heart torn as he repeated the phrase in which she had said: "It is a matter that concerns no one but me."

Then Carlotta rose, saying:

— Come to bed; we must rest and gather our strength for tomorrow, for it will be a hard day.

He sighed and rose, gazing at his beloved wife, who went up to the mirror, and, after casting a glance at herself, unclasped the pearl necklace, took a small key from her handbag, then opened a drawer, drew out of it a large velvet case, laid the necklace in it, returned it to the drawer, and locked it. Then she smiled and threw herself into his arms, saying:

— We must think only of the future. We shall live a few beautiful years, even if we no longer have the fortune we possessed before — for our two hearts are still what they were of old...

And three months later Jean Beraldi and his wife were preparing to answer an invitation to an evening dinner at the house of the governor of the city of Rio. This party was the first official party

they would attend since their arrival in Brazil. In an elegant room of their beautiful, modest house, Carlotta was putting on a magnificent gown she had brought from Paris without her husband's knowledge, and when Jean came in and saw her he said aloud:

— How beautiful, how magnificent this gown is! You will be the most beautiful guest this evening too — but...

— But what?...

— But I do not see the pearl necklace.

— The necklace? And why must I wear an ornament at all? Is not elegance found in economy of adornment? And I think that in this city especially I ought to give people the notion that I own so many jewels that I neglect them and appear at parties without them...

He agreed with her view, yet said with insistence:

— All the same, I want you to wear the necklace, for it is unlike any other ornament.

— But I can never put it on my neck.

He said, his face darkening:

— Why? Why? Have you lost it?

She went to a small drawer, took from it the case of the necklace, and offered it to Jean, saying:

— No! It is not lost — but look..

Jean opened the beautiful case with a trembling hand, and the necklace appeared before his eyes in all the splendor and luster of its pearls. He remembered how he had spent two whole years gathering its pearls one after another through the most famous jeweler in Paris; and he remembered too the great joy that had flooded his soul two weeks before his wedding, when the necklace was complete and he saw it lying temptingly in its velvet compartment, just as he saw it now. Then he took the necklace tenderly between his hands and began to feel its pearls with his fingers as though it were a living thing. Carlotta watched his movements with something like heartache and said to him:

— And now, do you understand why I cannot wear it and adorn myself with it?

But Jean remained bewildered, looking now at his wife and now at the precious necklace, and then said:

— No! I confess I have not understood what you mean.

So she took her husband's arm, drew near the lamp with him, and said:

— Look at it closely!

Jean's color drained after he had examined the pearls by the light of the lamp, and he cried in a hoarse voice:

— It is impossible! No! That cannot be.

She answered him with sadness and sorrow:

— Yes, my dear. The pearls of the necklace are now false, for the jeweler who sold it to you bought it back from me in secret, after making me a copy of it... By this alone were we able to save the situation until today.

— So this is your secret?

— Yes, my dear.

Jean appreciated the great sacrifice Carlotta had made, yet he suffered much over the sale of the necklace, for he imagined that they had sold something of her love and of their past happiness.

Carlotta was thinking of this side of the matter too, and she said to him:

— I confess to you that selling the necklace pained me greatly, but I found no other way to save our situation. You know it is dear to my heart, and for that reason alone I wished to cheat fate... The pearls of the necklace now are all false and lying — save for one pearl. Yes, I preserved the precious memory the necklace carries by placing its most beautiful pearl among the false ones; and thus the precious symbol it bears has kept its meaning.

Jean took his wife in his arms and kissed her warmly, giving voice to his gratitude, and she went on:

— And I adorned myself with it all through the time we were playing our part, and it never crossed anyone's mind that Carlotta Beraldi could put a false necklace on her neck. And now, after the play has ended in peace, I can never wear it at all — for it is very possible that people would read in my eyes and in the features of my face that it is a false necklace...

And she closed the case that held the necklace and returned it to its place with a kind of reverence. Jean said to her in admiration:

— You are an astonishing woman. Had I not tried tonight to examine the pearls of the necklace, moved by some strange feeling, doubt of it would not have crossed my mind for a single instant — I, who picked out its original pearls with my own hand, one by one... O illusion, how mighty is your power!..

She sighed as though dreaming, and said:

— Illusion! How many people die of it! As for us, we are among those who have lived in it to the very end... And now come, let us go, if we care to reach the governor's house before it is too late.