"A thousand years and a dead fish outshines our beauty," smiled Lady Johnson. "If you truly admire our beauty, Jack, best prove it now."
"To which of us the Golden Apple?" inquired Claudia, offering one of the winter russets which had been picked at the Point.
"Ho!" said I, "you think to perplex and frighten me? Non, pas! Polly Johnson shall not have it, because, if she ever makes me wise, wisdom is its own reward and needs no other. And you shall not have it, Claudia!"
"Why not?"
"Mere beauty cannot claim it."
"Why not? Venus received the apple cast by Eris."
"But only because Venus promised Love! Do you promise me the reward of the shepherd?"
"Myself?" she asked impudently.
"Venus," said Lady Johnson, "made that personal exception, and so must you, Claudia. The goddess promised beauty; but not herself."
"Then," said I, "Claudia has nothing to offer me. And so I give the apple to Penelope!"