d.

At last Alphonse felt hungry, went to the table, poured out a glass of
wine and began to eat his cutlet. But as he stood there eating, with his
glass in his hand, and looked round the dear old office where they had
spent so many pleasant hours, and then thought that they were to lose
all this and imbitter their lives for a whim, a sudden burst of passion,
the whole situation appeared to him so preposterous that he almost burst
out laughing.

"Look here, Charles," he said, in the half-earnest, half-joking tone
which always used to make Charles laugh, "it will really be too absurd
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.

He had always had a taste for dainty and luxurious living, but his
association with the frugal Charles had hitherto held his extravagances
in check. Now, on the contrary, his life became more and more
dissipated. He made fresh acquaintances on every hand, and was more than
ever the brilliant and popular Monsieur Alphonse; but Charles kept an
eye on his growing debts.

He had Alphonse watched as closely as possible, and, as their business
was of the same kind, could form a pretty good estimate of the other's
earnings. His expenses were even easier to ascertain, and he, soon
assured himself of the fact that Alphonse was beginning to run into debt
in several quarters.

He cultivated some acquaintances about whom he otherwise