02639cam a22003373u 450000100060000000300070000600500170001300600020003000700050003200800410003704000110007804100170008905000070010610000320011324500350014526400510018030000470023133600260027833700260030433800360033050000310036650500590039750801560045652014450061253400590205765300270211665300360214385600600217985600430223999900190228277648UtSlPG20260610134811.0mcr n260607r20261915utu|||||o|||||||||||||| d  aUtSlPG 7aen2iso639-1 4aPR1 aAumonier, Stacy,d1887-192814aThe friends, and other stories 1aSalt Lake City, UT :bProject Gutenberg,c2026  a1 online resource :bmultiple file formats  atextbtxt2rdacontent  acomputerbc2rdamedia  aonline resourcebcr2rdacarrier  aRelease date is 2026-01-080 aThe friends -- The packet -- "In the way of business."  aThe Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.)  aThe Friends, and Other Stories by Stacy Aumonier is a collection of short stories written in the early 20th century. Set largely amid London’s furnishing trade and its pubs and back streets, the opening tales trace the lives of salesmen, barmaids, and clerks whose camaraderie, drink, pride, and need lead to tenderness, self-deception, and abrupt ruin.

The opening of the collection first portrays White and Mapleson, two furnishing-trade cronies whose alcohol-soaked “business” friendship sustains their days until White’s near-fatal operation forces him to abstain; when he finally shares one last night of whisky with Mapleson, he dies, and Mapleson unravels through a humiliating funeral day and a fatal collapse while onlookers romanticize their bond. The next story, The Packet, shifts to Cotterway’s, where the failing, drink-worn Bultishaw is propped up by the calculating Ticknett after they edge out flashy Percy, who enlists and is killed; haunted by guilt and secretly supporting Daphne, the barmaid carrying Percy’s child, Bultishaw fixates on Percy’s promise that Ticknett will “get a packet,” and the climax reveals that Ticknett has indeed been shot, with money taken from his body handed back to Bultishaw’s family. The third story opens on the intimidating efficiency of a London trimmings firm and its domineering manager, before the excerpt breaks off. (This is an automatically generated summary.)  pOriginally published:cNew York: The Century Co., 1915  aShort stories, English  aEnglish fiction -- 20th century4 uhttps://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hnqj2e&seq=940uhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77648  c118368d118368