Love in "The Gift of the Magi" and "The Necklace": Is it Worth the Sacrifice? Hey! Over here! I read a few short stories and I would like to tell you a little bit about how they compare and contrast. The stories are: “The Gift of the Magi,” by O. Henry, and “The Necklace,” by Guy de Maupassant. “The Gift of the Magi” centers around a couple who are unselfish and very much in love. They sacrificed their most prized possessions for each other. In “The Necklace,” the story also involves a couple, but greed and selfishness controls the plot.