surd to advertise: 'According to an amicable agreement, from such and such a date the firm of—'"
"I have been thinking," interrupted Charles, quietly, "that we will put: 'According to mutual agreement.'"
Alphonse laughed no more; he put down his glass, and the cutlet tasted bitter in his mouth.
He understood that friendship was dead between them, why or wherefore he could not tell; but he thought that Charles was hard and unjust to him. He was now stiffer and colder than the other.
They worked together until the business of dissolution was finished; then they parted.
A considerable time passed, and the two quondam friends worked each in his own quarter in the great Paris. They met at the Bourse, but never did business with each other. Charles never worked against Alphonse; he did not wish to ruin him; he wished Alphonse to ruin himself.
And Alphonse seemed likely enough to meet his friend's wishes in this respect. It is true that now and then he did a good stroke of business, but the steady industry he had learned from Charles he soon forgot. He began to neglect his office, and lost many good connections.
