MENELAUS. I'm not interested in market quotations.
PARIS. You take everything so literally. I'm sure you're easily
bored.
MENELAUS [with meaning]. I am.
PARIS [going on cheerfully]. The first was to give me all the
money she could beg, and the second was to tell me all the truth
she could learn by listening, and the third promised me a pretty
girl. So I chose ---- [He hesitates.]
ANALYTIKOS. You cannot escape by spinning out your tale.
PARIS. Death is the end of one story and the beginning of
another.
MENELAUS. Well! Well! Come to the point. Which did you choose?
PARIS [smiling]. Well, you see I'd been in the hills for a long
while, so I picked the girl.
ANALYTIKOS. It would have been better for you if you had chosen
wisdom.
PARIS. I knew you'd say that.
ANALYTIKOS. I have spoken truly. In a moment you will die.
PARIS. It is because the old have forgotten life that they preach
wisdom.
MENELAUS. So you chose the girl? Well, go on.
PARIS. This made the other cronies angry, and when I tossed her
the apple one of the others yelped at me: "You may as well seek
the Queen of Sparta: she is the fairest of women.
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