The following is from S. Fitzgerald's novel Tender is the Night:
No friendship worth the name was ever destroyed in an hour without some painful flesh being torn -- so Franz let himself believe with ever-increasing conviction that Dick traveled intellectually and emotionally at such a rate of speed that the vibrations jarred him -- this was a contrast that had previously been considered a virtue in their relationship. So, for the shoddiness of needs, are shoes made out of last year's hide. Yet it was May before Franz found an opportunity to insert the first wedge.
What does the italicized sentence mean?