Ode To A Banker Read Online Free PDF

all expect free copies.' He looked relieved at my dry reaction. 'So what are you offering?'

    'Oh, a full deal,' he assured me. I noticed his kindly tone - leave all the details to us; we understand this business. I was with experts; that always worries me.

    'What does the deal entail?' Helena pressed him. Her tone sounded innocent, a senator's daughter, curious about this glimpse into the world of men. But she always looked after my interests. There had been a time when what I was paid - or if I was paid - bore a direct relation not just to what we could put on the table, but whether we ate at all.

    'Oh, the usual,' muttered Euschemon off-handedly. 'We agree a price with you, then publish. It is straightforward.'

    We both looked at him in silence. I was flattered, but not enough to grow stupid.

    He expanded somewhat: 'Well, we shall take your manuscripts, Falco, for an appropriate price.' Would I like it, however? 'Then we make the copies and sell them from our outlet - which is attached directly to our scriptorium.'

    'In the Forum?'

    He looked shifty. 'Near the end of the Clivus Publicius. Right by the Circus Maximus - a prime location,' he assured me. 'Excellent passing trade.'

    I knew the Clivus Publicius. It was a lonely hole, a back alley route down to the Circus from the Aventine. 'Can you give me a realistic figure?'

    'No, no. Chrysippus will negotiate the price.'

    I hated Chrysippus already. 'What are the options then? What kind of edition?'

    'That depends on how much value we attach to the writing. Classics, as you know, are furnished with first quality papyrus and parchment tide pages to protect the outer ends of the scrolls. Lesser work has a less elaborate finish, obviously, while a first-time author's work may even be prepared as a palimpsest ' Copied onto scrolls that have already been used once, with the old lines sponged out. 'Very carefully done, I may say,' murmured Euschemon winningly.

    'Maybe, but I wouldn't want that for my stuff. Who decides the format?'

    'Oh, we must do that!' He was shocked that I had even raised the subject. 'We choose the scroll size, finished material, decoration, type and size of the edition - all based on our long experience.'

    I played dumb. 'And all I have to do is write you something, then hand it over?'
    'Exactly!' He beamed.

    'Can I make further copies for my own use?'

    He winced. 'Afraid not. But you can buy from us at a discounted rate.' Buy my own work?

    'Bit one-sided?' I ventured.

    'A partnership,' he chided me. 'We work together for mutual benefit.' He sounded as reliable as a cheap gigolo moving in on his mark. 'Besides, we develop the markets and we carry all the risk.'

    'If the work doesn't sell, you mean?'

    'Quite. The house of Aurelius Chrysippus is not in business to provide kindling for bathhouse furnaces when we are forced to remainder failures. We like to get it right first time.'

    'Sounds good to me.'

    A harder note crept into his bland tone. 'So I assume you are interested?'

    I could see Helena, who was standing behind him, shaking her head passionately, with bared teeth.

    'I'm interested.' I smiled blithely. Helena had closed her eyes. 'I would like to see more of what you do, I think.' Where she might have looked relieved at my caution, Helena now acted out manic despair; she knew what I would be like if I was let loose at a scroll-seller's. She read as avidly as I did - though when it came to buying, she did not share my taste. As my taste had until recently depended upon what I could lay hands on in a limited corner of the second- or third-hand market, she was probably right to be sceptical. For most of my life I only ever had parts of scroll sets (unboxed), and I had to swap them once they were read.

    'Well, you can come down and see us,' Euschemon conceded grumpily.

    'I will,' I said. Helena mimed throwing a large skillet at my head. It was an excellent mime. I could smell the dumplings in the imaginary hot broth and feel the