The dining room which was of the proportions of a banquet hall, was in a luminous emerald green with black marble columns and ivory trims. I was not surprised to find a low table scarcely two feet in height surrounded by couches resembling Recamier sofas. “So we have returned to the classics?” “You should never have departed from them.” Acquilla waved me to a couch and disposed herself on one opposite. “It is quite a masculine repast I have ordered tonight, in consideration of your long fasting. I myself eat sparingly.” A curious thing happened. The two dogs immediately came and crouched adoringly at my feet. “How odd,” said Acquilla. “I’ve never seen them pay the slightest attention to any male before.” I confess this allusion to her past struck me disagreeably, for already romance was stirring in my imagination. She touched a signal and the centre of the table sunk on some mechanism under the floor. “And now, Bogardus, while we are waiting, you can imagine how curious I am to hear your first question.” “You will never guess what it will be,” I said smiling. “It is in fact very mundane, but in a sense it was the great question of my time.” “Political?” “No, social.” “Marriage?” “More important than that.” “The competitive system?” “I’ll tell you. How have you solved the servant problem?” “Oh.” Acquilla regarded me with a look of disappointment. “But that is no problem at all. I run this place on a dozen machinots, a gardener and Mag, my housekeeper.” “But even if you have one servant, my dear Acquilla, you have the servant problem, haven’t you?” “Problem? There is no problem,” she replied, thinking over what I had said. “Then you have discovered how to produce perfect servants.” “Certainly, we have absolute control over our servants.” “How so?” “Why, very simple. We put them under hypnotic control, of course.” My face expressed such blank amazement that she continued immediately: “But how else can you handle servants? I simply hypnotize them and suggest to them each morning what they shall do during the day. That eliminates all possibility of error or misunderstanding.” “Wonderful! And to think no one ever thought of it in my day. Perfect, and so simple!” The idea appealed to my sense of humor. I flung myself back among the cushions and laughed until I cried. All at once I felt Acquilla’s hand on my shoulder and saw her bending anxiously over me. “Bogardus, dear, you are in pain!” I sat up wiping my eyes. “Pain?! Don’t you see I am laughing?” “Laughing? What is that?” My jaw dropped. “What, you have never heard of laughter?” A sudden revelation came to me at her blank seriousness. “Good heavens, women have abolished laughter!” “Laughter--laughter? I haven’t the least idea what you’re talking about.”