Within, the consternation was so evident that even Acquilla, carried away by her passion, dared to exclaim: “He is right!” “Ah, Acquilla,” I exclaimed, moved by the daring of her act, “by that word you have doomed me. Your sex has always forgiven us when we were in the wrong, but never for being right!” “Bogardus has at least the intelligence to perceive the issue,” said Manfreda, raising her hand for silence. “It is not a question of right or wrong. True justice is a matter of necessity. And we shall decide this question not on legal quibbles or adroit justification but on one simple issue. Is it necessary to remove Bogardus from the State?” There was a visible brightening among the Minervenes. I bowed ironically and replied: “For a moment I was afraid that I might convince you. Thank heaven that a sense of humor no longer exists, for I shudder to think that if it did, you would compel me to go on living in this dreadful state!” Dianne, my beloved Dianne sprang to my side, crying: “If you sentence this man, I demand the right to follow him.” “And I!” cried Dulcina. “And I!” cried Carrilla, to my surprise. Acquilla hesitated, stunned, and covered her eyes with her arm. Encouraged by the stupor these defections produced, I stood with my arm about Dianne and taunted them: “If you only knew how gladly I welcome my fate! Your vaunted civilization is nothing but a dreadful monotony. Your freedom of the individual is only a terrifying loneliness. You are not human beings; you are as mechanical as your machinots. You are so afraid of suffering that you have cut away every emotion that makes life worth living. You can’t laugh with a friend, romp with a child or cling to a man! This magnificent scientific era is, my dear ladies, to me a man who has lived in the glorious twentieth century--just a flat, drab, dreary existence! If God had intended humanity to end thus, He would have taken color and beauty out of His universe as you have done out of life. Stay here? Thanks, ladies! I should be bored to death!”