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separate point if M. Tullius,[1] my secretary, were here, though as regards him, I have satisfied myself that in the matter of making up the accounts at all events (as to the other matters I cannot speak so positively) he never wittingly did anything incompatible with either your interests or your good name; and, in the next place, supposing the old law and ancient custom as to handing in the accounts were still in force, I assure you that I should never have thought of handing them in without having first, in view of our intimate official connexion, checked them and made them up with you.
2 And so what I should have done near Rome, had the traditional procedure been still observed, that I did in the province, since it was necessary according to the Julian law to leave the accounts behind in the province, and to send in an exact duplicate of them to the Treasury; and I did so not so as to induce you to accept my own calculations as conclusive, but I gave you as free a hand as I shall never regret having given you. I put my secretary entirely at your service (though I see that you now suspect him), and it was you who put your cousin, M. Mindius,[2] in touch with him. The accounts were made up in my absence when you were present, and I never interfered with them at all except that I perused them; and my having received an account-book from my slave and secretary was the same thing as my having received it from your cousin. If this was a compliment, I could have paid you no greater; if a mark of confidence, I showed you almost more than I showed myself; had it been my duty to take precautions to prevent any return being made that would prejudice either your honour or your interests,