Letter 3027: I had believed that nothing could be added to a friendship between us that is already full and long-established.

I had believed that nothing could be added to the full and long-established friendship between us; you have found, nevertheless, a means by which we might raise the perfect devotion of yourself to its very summit. For with charming confidence you commissioned that there be furnished for your own appearance the things which a winter journey demanded. Yet you yourself abound in all things, but out of zeal for bestowing kindnesses you contrived an occasion for asking. But it is sufficiently agreed that by this you have given a favor, since he received the more, for whom the affection of another claims something on his behalf. By one slip only -- if it be permitted to say so -- did your friendly claim limp, namely that you promise to repay me from Galatia, when you have come to your ancestral hearth. I should not have wished the steadfastness of a good deed to descend into these words of anxious modesty. But I pass over the slight charm of your praiseworthy letter; for the obligation of so great a favor does not allow me to be an interpreter of words. But why do we speak many things, being about to send small ones? The description of the garments to be delivered to you occupies the second page. What you may think about its modest quality, you yourself will see, who wished for garments suited rather to winter than to elegance. Farewell.