"He must not think that he would succeed in winning everything to
himself with his smooth face." Alphonse was not conscious of ever
having deprived his friend of anything.

"I don't care for your cocottes" Charles had said.

Could he really have been interested in the little Spanish dancer?
If Alphonse had only had the faintest suspicion of such a thing he
would never have looked at her. But that was nothing to get so
wild about; there were plenty of women in Paris.

And at last: "As sure as to-morrow comes, I will dissolve
partnership!"

Alphonse did not understand it at all. He left the counting-house
and walked moodily through the streets until he met an
acquaintance. That put other thoughts into his head; but all day
he had a feeling as if something gloomy and uncomfortable lay in
wait, ready to seize him so soon as he was alone.

When he reached home, late at night, he found a letter from
Charles. He opened it hastily; but it contained, instead of the
apology he had expected, only a coldly-worded request to M.
Alphonse to attend at the counting-house early the next morning
"in order that the contemplated dissolution of partnership might
be effected as quickly as possible."

Now, for the first time, did Alphonse begin to understand that the
scene in the counting-house had been more than a passing outburst
of passion; but this only made the affair more inexplicable.