Quote 19
"I brought you back another just like it. And now for ten years we have been paying for it. You will understand that it was not easy for us, who had nothing. At last, it is done, and I am mighty glad." (122)
Mathilde is proud of all the work and suffering she and her husband have put into repaying for the necklace. It was an honorable and difficult thing to do. But they've succeeded.
Quote 20
"Yes. You did not notice it, even, did you? They were exactly alike?"
And she smiled with proud and naïve joy. (126-127)
Mathilde is even more proud to learn that Mme. Forestier didn't notice the difference between her original necklace and the substitute. It adds extra validation to her work: she did fully make up for losing the necklace.
Quote 21
She suffered intensely, feeling herself born for every delicacy and every luxury. She suffered from the poverty of her dwelling, from the worn walls, the abraded chairs, the ugliness of the stuffs. All these things, which another woman of her caste would not even have noticed, tortured her and made her indignant. The sight of the little girl from Brittany who did her humble housework awoke in her desolated regrets and distracted dreams. (3)
Mathilde is unhappy locked up in her house, just being there makes her suffer. She finds it oppressive. Her only method of coping with it is to live in a dream world. The question is, does Mathilde just suffer because she's excessively greedy? Or does she suffer because her life is boring and meaningless?