"More's truth." This brief but heartfelt. "I see why Xellos likes you so; he has often said it, more circumspectly, but often said it."
"My Venice? I doubt she were much changed in twenty years since you had been ... associated with her," Iago evades gracefully. "Wet and warring, and friend to a few but enemy to more." A slight pause, then -- "I must tell you, I thought you at first to be flattering me purposely, but -- I never quite earned that title."