"Not at all," Forrester cut in.
Maya sniffed sadly. "Oh, you just don't understand," she said. "You're an Athenian, aren't you?"
"Athenan," Forrester said automatically. It was a correction he found himself called upon to make ten or twelve times a week. "An Athenian is a resident of Athens, while an Athenan is a worshipper of the Goddess Athena. We—"
"I understand," Maya said. "I suppose it's like us. We don't like to be called Aphrodisiacs, you know. We prefer Venerans."
She was leaning across the desk. Forrester, though he supposed some people might be fussy about it, could see no objection whatever to the term Aphrodisiacs. A wild thought dealing with Spheres of Influence strayed into his mind, and he suppressed it firmly.
The girl was a Veneran. A worshipper of Venus, Goddess of Love.
Her choice of religion, he thought, was unusually appropriate.
And as for his....