explain Mathilde Loisel's attitude toward honesty? how might Mathilde's life have been different if she had told madame the truth right after the ball?

Mathilde has a problem with honesty because she lives in a fantasy. Up until the time she puts her husband and herself into immeasurable debt, she lives a fantasy and a lie, but the person she is most dishonest with is herself. Being more honest with Madame Forestier would have saved Mathilde ten-years of hard labor.