She waited all day long, in the same state of bewilderment at this fearful catastrophe.
 Loisel came home at night, his face lined and pale; he had discovered nothing.
 "You must write to your friend," he said, "and tell her that you've broken the clasp of her necklace and are getting it mended. That will give us time to look about us."
 She wrote at his dictation.
*
By the end of a week they had lost all hope.