It’s sad really; people seem to think that Port Naain is a city that stinks of squalor and degradation. But there are many genuinely pleasant areas. One of the nicest is the Mercantile Quarter. It is to the west of the Grand Library and spreads down the side of the hill. The part that overlooks both the estuary and the wharves tends to be strait-laced and even fuddy-duddy. There you find the offices and homes of lawyers, usurers, shipping companies, actuaries, brokers, money-lenders and jurists. The other part of the Mercantile Quarter which looks down to the sea is far more iconoclastic, where the affluent free-spirits, dilettantes and dabblers gather in pretty cafes and moan together at how difficult life is for the merely well-heeled.

Over the years I have had dealings in that quarter, but to be honest, I’m more likely to be seen there running errands for Shena…