This quote comes at the very beginning of the story, and relates to the background of Mathilde Loisel before the beginning of the story. In this quote, Maupassant tells us the kind of person Mathilde was and how she ended up being married to her husband. Key to note is...
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the way that her beauty stands in contrast to her social station. Being born "by an accident of fate" into a family of clerks denotes her humble origins, which is belied by her natural beauty and manners. However, in spite of her qualities, she has no chance of making a better marriage because she has "no dowry, no prospects" and no way of meeting and marrying a "prosperous and famous" man. Because of this, she is forced to put up with a marriage to her husband who occupies the same social station as she does.
This quote then sets the scene for the massive feeling of discontentment and even injustice felt by Mathilde Loisel and the way she is prone to constant daydreaming because of her feeling that she deserved more out of her life than the lot she has been given.
How can I paraphrase this paragraph from "The Necklace"?"She was one of those pretty and charming girls, born as if by an accident of fate into a family of clerks. With no dowry, no prospects, no way of any kind of being met, understood, loved, and married by a man both prosperous and famous., she was finally married to a minor clerk. Â
This passage is making fun of Madame Loisel's yearning and unrealistic desire to have been born to a higher station in life. Maupassant is being tongue-in-cheek or ironic in these utterances. He is relaying her thoughts about her fate: that it seems an "accident" that someone as attractive and deserving as she is ended up born to a clerk's family, and not to some more glamorous fate. Because her family has to live on its earnings, there is no money for a dowry, a sum of money richer families would give their daughters to help them attract a well-to-do mate. Her family also lacks connections with wealthy or important people, and so she has no way to meet a wealthy and famous man. From Madame Loisel's point of view, had she met such a man, he naturally would have fallen in love with her. So, she has to "settle" for marrying a minor clerk, which is not settling at all, except in her own mind.
A paraphrase might read: Poor, poor Madame Loisel! In her own mind, she was so attractive and special that it was a crime, really a cruel stroke of bad luck, that she was not born into a wealthier family. With a dowry or connection she could have married the kind of man she deserved: one who was rich and famous! Instead, her talents and beauty were wasted on having to marry a minor clerk!