In appearance, at least, he being on all occasions glad to be at friendship with me, though we hate one another, and know it on both sides.

Pepys is describing a relationship maintained for convenience rather than affection: outward civility (“in appearance”) masks mutual hostility that both parties privately acknowledge. The line captures the performative nature of social and professional life in Pepys’s world—where alliances, politeness, and “friendship” could be strategic tools even among rivals. It also shows Pepys’s characteristic candor in the Diary: he records not only what is said and done publicly, but the unspoken knowledge underneath. The quote highlights the tension between public reputation and private feeling, and how mutual self-interest can sustain a façade of amity despite genuine animus.