"No, what?"

"This young lady knows something of your art."

"I learnt to knead clay a little of Aristaeus," interrupted Balbilla.

"Aha! because Caesar set the fashion, and in Rome it would have been
conspicuous not to dabble in sculpture."

"Perhaps."

"And she tried to improve in every bust all that particularly displeased
her," continued Claudia.

"I only began the work for the slaves to finish," Balbilla threw in,
interrupting her companion. "Indeed, my people became quite expert in
the work of destruction."

"Then my work may, at any rate, hope for a short agony and speedy death,"
sighed Pollux. "And it is true--all that lives comes into the world with
its end already preordained."

"Would an early demise of your work pain you much? "asked Balbilla.

"Yes, if I thought it successful; not if I felt it to be a failure."

"Any one who keeps a bad bust," said Balbilla, "must feel fearful lest an
undeservedly bad reputation is handed down to future generations."

"Certainly! but how then can you find courage to expose yourself for the