How it opens
Alexandria that spring was two cities wearing one toga, a marble one for the court and a hungry one under it.
Your workshop stood in the Street of the Sculptors, two rooms, a yard, and a debt to the clay merchant.
DionPollux, my sculptor, my poor relation, my conscience. I have found you the commission of the decade.
Choose
Charge him for every visit, a small commission on his own good news, and let the ledger keep the friendship honest.
Feed him when he arrives hungry, which is always, since a rich man fed by a poor man owes the poor man the truth.
Ask him for nothing, ever, and let that be the one service you render him.