Feathersmith and Diedrich in “Of Late I Think of Cliffordville”

...It seems like only yesterday that you called me into your office and said, "Bill Feathersmith. I like your style, boy. I want you in with me." You remember that day?

I've cursed myself for it ever since. I've found you to be - from the moment I made you a junior partner, increasingly as the years have gone by, even by the cutthroat standards of our mutual trade - a predatory, conniving, grasping, acquisitive animal of a man...Without heart, without conscience, without compassion, without even a subtle hint of the common decencies. Shall we continue from there?