He soon left the shop, and went up the street, quite
absorbed in the one thought that Alphonse had paid.
He thought how foolish it really was of him to wait and wait for
the other's ruin. How easily might not the adroit and lucky
Alphonse come across many a brilliant business opening, and make
plenty of money without a word of it reaching Charles's ears.
Perhaps, after all, he was getting on well. Perhaps it would end
in people saying, "See, at last Monsieur Alphonse shows what he is
fit for, now that he is quit of his dull and crabbed partner!"
Charles went slowly up the street with his head bent. Many people
jostled him, but he heeded not. His life seemed to him so
meaningless, as if he had lost all that he had ever possessed--or
had he himself cast it from him? Just then some one ran against
him with more than usual violence. He looked up. It was an
acquaintance from the time when he and Alphonse had been in the
Credit Lyonnais.
"Ah, good-day, Monsieur Charles!" cried he, "It is long since we
met. Odd, too, that I should meet you to-day. I was just thinking
of you this morning."
"Why, may I ask?" said Charles, half absently.
"Well, you see, only to-day I saw up at the bank a paper--a bill
for thirty or forty thousand francs--bearing both your name and
that of Monsieur Alphonse. It astonished me, for I thought that
you two--hm!--had done with each other."
"No, we have not quite done with each other yet," said Charles
slowly.
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