“You ca?”
“Very many thanks——”
“Thanks? Very well, my dear friend; as not the Duke of F., or Count P., of course——”
Who can resist an attack of this kind? Who cares to appear proud? “It is not that, but——”
“Well, if it’s not that,” he breaks in, “I shall expect you at two. We dine early at my house—Spanish style. I expect a lot of people; there will be the famous improvisor X.; T. will sing after dinner in his usual first-rate style; and in the evening J. will play and sing some trifles.”
This consoled me somewhat, and I had to give way. “Everybody,” said I to myself, “has an evil day sometimes. In this world, if one wishes to preserve friends, one must endure their civilities.”
“You wo fail, unless you want to quarrel with me?”
“I shall not fail,” I said in a lifeless voice and low spirits, like a fox vainly revolving in the trap in which it has allowed itself to be caught.
“Then good-bye till to-morrow,” and he gave me a parting slap.
I watched him go as the sower watches the decreasing cloud of his seed, and remained wondering how one should take such adverse and fatal friendships.