The friends, and other stories

The 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.