“Capital!” was his comment. “Now about the compensation.”
I had to haggle with my generous friend and to beat him down half of his
original offer. My stipend settled, “I admit,” said he, “that I am
ravenously hungry. Suppose we dine?”
We adjourned to Moretti’s. During the dinner we discussed our future.
He said he was constantly writing new matter and therefore our contract
would not terminate with the completion of the particular MS. in
question. “Ah, what good times we are going to enjoy!” he cried.
“We are perfectly companionable! There is nothing so satisfactory,
nothing so productive of bien être, as friendship, after all.”
Dinner over, we strolled arm in arm through the streets. For the first
time in two years I began to feel that the world was not quite a ruin.
At home we talked till late into the night. And when I went to bed it
was to lie awake for hours and hours, congratulating myself upon my
newly discovered friend.