e price to be paid, they could agree at the same time and place.

The sculptor was a man of foresight and did not appear on the scene
alone but with his best assistant, Pollux, the son of the worthy couple
at the gate, and several slaves who dragged after him sundry trunks and
carts loaded with tools, boards, clay, gypsum and other raw materials
of his art. On the road to Lochias he had informed the young sculptor of
the business in hand, and had told him in a condescending tone that he
would be permitted to try his skill in reconstructing the Urania. At the
gate he had permitted Pollux to greet his parents, and had gone alone
into the palace to open his bargain with the architect without the
presence of witnesses.

The young artist perfectly understood his master. He knew that he would
be expected to carry out the statue of Urania, while his task-master,
after making some trifling alterations in the completed work, would
declare that it was his own. Pollux had for two years been obliged,
more than once, to put up with similar treatment; and now, as usual, he
submitted to this dishonest manoeuvre because, under his master there
was plenty to do, and the delight of work was to him the greatest he
could have.

Papias, to whom he had gone early as an apprentice and to whom he owed
the knowledge he possessed, was no miser, still Pollux needed money, not
for himself alone but because he had taken on himself the charge of a
widowed sister and her children as if they were his own family. He was
always glad to take some comfort into the narrow home of his parents,
who were poor, and to maintain his younger brother Teuker--who had
devoted himself to the same art--during the years of his apprenticeship.
Again and again he had thought of telling his master that he should
start on his own footing and earn laurels for himself, but what then
would become of those who relied on his help, if he gave up his regular
earnings and if he got no commissions when there were so many unknown
beginners eager for them? Of what avail were all his ability and the
most honest good-will if no opportunity offered for his executing his
work in noble materials? With his own means he certainly was in no
position to do so.

While he was talking to his parents Papias had opened his transactions
with the architect. Pontius explained to the sculptor what was required
and Papias listened attentively; he never interrupted the speaker, but
only stroked his