She was devoured with anxiety during dinner, for she scarcely touched her extracts, while I, on the contrary, after the fashion of men, fortified myself copiously. But all at once the perplexity in her eyes cleared and sitting up unexpectedly she cried: “Ah, I know, you have seen the Clubs!” “Your intuitions are right,” I said sternly to avoid explanations. “I have seen that shameful prison you call a Club, I have seen what you call men assembled in a football arena; and I have learned precisely what humiliating positions they occupy in your state.” My anger brought back her calm. Since the contest was to be on intellectual grounds she recovered her authority. “I suspected it,” she said acidly. “Dianne has done a wrong, a dangerous thing. I myself would have guided you when the time was ripe. But this premature introduction before you have a true conception of what our civilization has accomplished has, as I foresaw, worked on your sentimental nature.” I laughed an angry ironical laugh. “You call my reactions sentimental, indeed!” “Certainly. What do you object to? You have learned that men are kept simply as breeders, privileged to be free of all care and responsibility. And you are in a rage. Why? Is it because we have taken from the male instinct the inhibitions that he rebelled against in your day? Come, let us be frank! How many men you knew would have rebelled against this existence they now enjoy?” “My dear Acquilla!” I started to say, then coughed and stopped. I realized that I was meeting the adroit feminine mind and that above everything I must keep cool and avoid being put on the defensive. I rose, took a turn about the room and sat down. “Let us discuss it calmly,” I said, biting my lips. “Calmly.” “It is not simply that you have made specialists of my sex,” I said with an attempt at irony, “but the cold-blooded way in which you carry out your intentions!” “As for instance?” “You have gone a little further than the insects which you admire so much. I suppose I should return thanks for that. But I do not. I have now recognized that sentimentality plays no part in a woman’s nature. But I was not prepared for the machine-like efficiency--” “What are you talking about, my dear man?” I stopped, composed myself, and blurted out: “Do you deny that at the age of thirty-five men are disposed of in a sort of slaughter of the drones?” “Oh, I see,” said Acquilla. She looked at me with one of her irritating smiles and replied, “But how did you treat my sex when you had a man-made civilization?” “What? What?” “I asked you a simple question, dear. How did you treat my sex when you had a man-made civilization? After thirty-five what was there in life for the generality of women?” “Their homes, their children,” I answered pontifically.