"A Piece of String"

Exposition

Suddenly the drum beat in the court before the house. Everybody rose, except a few indifferent persons, and ran to the door or to the
windows, their mouths still full and napkins in their hands.

After the public crier had ceased his drumbeating he called out in a
jerky voice, speaking his phrases irregularly:

"It is hereby made known to the inhabitants of Goderville, and in
general to all persons present at the market, that there was lost this
morning on the road to Benzeville, between nine and ten o'clock, a
black leather pocketbook containing five hundred francs and some
business papers. The finder is requested to return same with all haste
to the mayor's office or to Maître Fortune Houlbreque of Manneville;
there will be twenty francs reward."

Then the man went away. The heavy roll of the drum and the crier's
voice were again heard at a distance.

Then they began to talk of this event, discussing the chances that
Maître Houlbreque had of finding or not finding his pocketbook.

This segment of the story is laying out what is going to occur in the
plot and is giving background info towards what's going to happen in
the future of the story.

Inciting Incident

Maître Hauchecome of Breaute had just arrived at Goderville, and he
was directing his steps toward the public square when he perceived
upon the ground a little piece of string. Maître Hauchecome,
economical like a true Norman, thought that everything useful ought to
be picked up, and he bent painfully, for he suffered from rheumatism.
He took the bit of thin cord from the ground and began to roll it
carefully when he noticed Maître Malandain, the harness maker, on the
threshold of his door, looking at him. They had heretofore had
business together on the subject of a halter, and they were on bad
terms, both being good haters. Maître Hauchecome was seized with a
sort of shame to be seen thus by his enemy, picking a bit of a head.
Two arms and string out of the dirt. He concealed his "find" quickly
under his blouse, then in his trousers' pocket; then he pretended to
be still looking on the ground for something which he did not find,
and he went toward the market, his head forward, bent double by his
pains.

He was soon lost in the noisy and slowly moving crowd which was busy
with interminable bargainings. The peasants milked, went and came,
perplexed, always in fear of being cheated, not daring to decide,
watching the vender's eye, ever trying to find the trick in the man
and the flaw in the beast.

This segment of the story introduces the first major conflict in the
play by finding the little piece of string on the ground.

Rising Action

He inquired:

"Is Maître Hauchecome of Breaute here?"

Maître Hauchecome, seated at the other end of the table, replied:

"Here I am."

And the officer resumed:

"Maître Hauchecome, will you have the goodness to accompany me to the
mayor's office? The mayor would like to talk to you."

The peasant, surprised and disturbed, swallowed at a draught his tiny
glass of brandy, rose and, even more bent than in the morning, for the
first steps after each rest were specially difficult, set out,
repeating: "Here I am, here I am."

The mayor was awaiting him, seated on an armchair. He was the notary
of the vicinity, a stout, serious man with pompous phrases.

"Maître Hauchecome," said he, "you were seen this morning to pick up,
on the road to Benzeville, the pocketbook lost by Maître Houlbreque of
Manneville."

The countryman, astounded, looked at the mayor, already terrified by
this suspicion resting on him without his knowing why.

"Me? Me? Me pick up the pocketbook?"

"Yes, you yourself."

"Word of honor, I never heard of it."

"But you were seen."

"I was seen, me? Who says he saw me?"

"Monsieur Malandain, the harness maker."

The old man remembered, understood and flushed with anger.

"Ah, he saw me, the clodhopper, he saw me pick up this string here,
M'sieu the Mayor." And rummaging in his pocket, he drew out the little
piece of string.

But the mayor, incredulous, shook his head.

"You will not make me believe, Maître Hauchecome, that Monsieur
Malandain, who is a man worthy of credence, mistook this cord for a
pocketbook."

The peasant, furious, lifted his hand, spat at one side to attest his
honor, repeating:

"It is nevertheless the truth of the good God, the sacred truth,
M'sieu the Mayor. I repeat it on my soul and my salvation."

The mayor resumed:

"After picking up the object you stood like a stilt, looking a long
while in the mud to see if any piece of money had fallen out."

The good old man choked with indignation and fear.

"How anyone can tell--how anyone can tell--such lies to take away an
honest man's reputation! How can anyone---"

There was no use in his protesting; nobody believed him. He was con.

fronted with Monsieur Malandain, who repeated and maintained his
affirmation. They abused each other for an hour. At his own request
Maître Hauchecome was searched; nothing was found on him.

Finally the mayor, very much perplexed, discharged him with the
warning that he would consult the public prosecutor and ask for
further orders.

The news had spread. As he left the mayor's office the old man was sun
rounded and questioned with a serious or bantering curiosity in which
there was no indignation. He began to tell the story of the string. No
one believed him. They laughed at him.

He went along, stopping his friends, beginning endlessly his statement
and his protestations, showing his pockets turned inside out to prove
that he had nothing.

They said:

"Old rascal, get out!"

And he grew angry, becoming exasperated, hot and distressed at not

being believed, not knowing what to do and always repeating himself.

Night came. He must depart. He started on his way with three neighbors
to whom he pointed out the place where he had picked up the bit of
string, and all along the road he spoke of his adventure.

In the evening he took a turn in the village of Breaute in order to
tell it to everybody. He only met with incredulity.

It made him ill at night.

This segment lets our anticipation grow as it leads to the climax of the story.  Maître Hauchecome is being found out by the mayor from the story of Monsieur Malandain.

Climax

The next day about one o'clock in the afternoon Marius Paumelle, a
hired man in the employ of Maître Breton, husbandman at Ymanville,
returned the pocketbook and its contents to Maître Houlbreque of
Manneville.

This man claimed to have found the object in the road, but not knowing
how to read, he had carried it to the house and given it to his
employer.

The news spread through the neighborhood. Maître Hauchecome was
informed of it. He immediately went the circuit and began to recount
his story completed by the happy climax. He was in triumph.

This part of the story is the turning point of the action, because the
pocketbook and its contents were returned to Maitre Houlbreque.

Falling Action

"What grieved me so much was not the thing itself as the lying. There
is nothing so shameful as to be placed under a cloud on account of a
lie."

He talked of his adventure all day long; he told it on the highway to
people who were passing by, in the wine shop to people who were
drinking there and to persons coming out of church the following
Sunday. He stopped strangers to tell them about it. He was calm now, and yet something disturbed him without his knowing exactly what it
was. People had the air of joking while they listened. They did not
seem convinced. He seemed to feel that remarks were being made behind
his back.

On Tuesday of the next week he went to the market at Goderville, urged
solely by the necessity he felt of discussing the case.

Malandain, standing at his door, began to laugh on seeing him pass. Why?

He approached a farmer from Crequetot who did not let him finish and,
giving him a thump in the stomach, said to his face:

"You big rascal."

Then he turned his back on him.

Maître Hauchecome was confused; why was he called a big rascal?

When he was seated at the table in Jourdain's tavern he commenced to
explain "the affair."

A horse dealer from Monvilliers called to him:

"Come, come, old sharper, that's an old trick; I know all about your
piece of string!"

Hauchecome stammered:

"But since the pocketbook was found."

But the other man replied:

"Shut up, papa, there is one that finds and there is one that reports.
At any rate you are mixed with it."

The peasant stood choking. He understood. They accused him of having
had the pocketbook returned by a confederate, by an accomplice.

He tried to protest. All the table began to laugh.

He could not finish his dinner and went away in the midst of jeers.

He went home ashamed and indignant, choking with anger and confusion,
the more dejected that he was capable, with his Norman cunning, of
doing what they had accused him of and ever boasting of it as of a
good turn. His innocence to him, in a confused way, was impossible to
prove, as his sharpness was known. And he was stricken to the heart by
the injustice of the suspicion.

Then he began to recount the adventures again, prolonging his history
every day, adding each time new reasons, more energetic protestations,
more solemn oaths which he imagined and prepared in his hours of
solitude, his whole mind given up to the story of the string. He was
believed so much the less as his defense was more complicated and his
arguing more subtle.

"Those are lying excuses," they said behind his back.

He felt it, consumed his heart over it and wore himself out with
useless efforts. He wasted away before their very eyes.

This is the event after the climax, and the story is coming to its
end, but the plot is not yet solved.

Denouement (Resolution)

The wags now made him tell about the string to amuse them, as they
make a soldier who has been on a campaign tell about his battles. His
mind, touched to the depth, began to weaken.

Toward the end of December he took to his bed.

He died in the first days of January, and in the delirium of his death
struggles he kept claiming his innocence, reiterating:

"A piece of string, a piece of string--look--here it is, M'sieu the Mayor."

The tangles of the plot are untied and the mystery is now solved.