It had been three years since the two last met, but Bonvissuto had followed the careers of all his former students. He took vast pride in them. Naturally, he knew about Ana.

“I didn’t come here to talk about her,” Drake said, “unless you want to, I mean. I came to ask your advice.”

“Anything that I can do, I will. For you and little Ana, I will be happy…” Bonvissuto paused, swallowed, and turned away. The volatile Italian persona was not all fake.

“I have to make money.” Drake spoke dispassionately to the other man’s back. He needed advice, not emotional support. “A lot of money. I wondered if you could suggest a way.”

“You! The least commercial of all my students. Oh!” Bonvissuto turned again, and Drake saw in his eyes a sudden understanding. “I know. I went through some of it myself, two years ago. The damned hospitals — the tests, and all the drugs, and prices you wouldn’t believe — five dollars for an aspirin, two hundred dollars a day for a room, fifty dollars for a doctor who drops in on you for two minutes and doesn’t even look at you — they bleed you dry.”

Drake nodded. It was a mistaken assumption, but letting it stand saved lots of explanation. “I need to make as much money as I can. As quickly as I can. I don’t know how.”

“But I do.” Bonvissuto went across to his piano. “Provided you are willing to lower your standards. Are you?”

“I don’t know. What do you mean?”

“Don’t worry. I am not about to suggest that you form a rock group. You compose well, and you compose fast. But your music is too difficult to be popular. This is what Drake Merlin is writing.” Bonvissuto played a sequence of spare chords with no clear tonal center, and above them on the right hand a wandering angular melody.

“That’s from my Suite for Charon !”

“It is indeed. I took the liberty of making a piano transcription.” Bonvissuto sounded not at all apologetic. “It is very beautiful — to you, and me, and maybe a few thousand others. But if you want to appeal to a few million, you must be simpler, more accessible. Like this.” Bonvissuto played a jaunty bass theme, accompanied by dazzling prestissimo downward runs on the right hand.