Your slaves tell me that you are engaged and cannot see me for a full hour yet; I return before the time they appointed, and they tell me that you have gone out.

What can you be doing, Ctesiphon, in that remotest part of your rooms, of so laborious a kind as to prevent you from seeing me?
You are filing some bills, you are comparing a register; you are signing your name, you are putting the flourish.

I had but one thing to ask you, and you had but one word to reply: yes or no.

Do you want to be singular?
Render service to those who are dependent upon you, you will be more so by that behavior than by not letting yourself be seen.

O man of importance and overwhelmed with business, who in your turn have need of my offices, come into the solitude of my closet; the philosopher is accessible; I shall not put you off to another day.