“Oh, yes,” I interjected hastily, “the new science likewise frees the child from the evils of the mother and father complex. We heard a good deal about that too, in our day,” I added proudly. “Really? Then why didn’t you act upon it?” said Doctrina, in whom the repressed mother-in-law instinct that must slumber in every woman, had turned blood to acid. “Those archaic tribal institutions you clung to--motherhood and the home, were responsible for all the inhibitions, abnormalities, psychoneurotics that made you human beings slaves of prejudices and fears.” I was seized with a hot indignation and a hasty retort was on my lips at this blasphemy, but I remembered in time and controlled myself with difficulty. “There were happy memories too,” I suggested. “All unnecessary. The child develops quicker when thrown on his own initiative and subjected to the stimulation of competition with other children. We will begin with the state nurseries and the primary schools,” she added, pointing to a long wooded tract about the middle of Long Island. We alighted on a great star-shaped campus, the administration hall in the center with hospitals like great glass hangars at the apexes. The new-born infants were being classified and registered according to their caste, receiving a disk which indicated the strain of the mother and father, for statistical purposes presumably. “The child is subjected to the first physical tests immediately,” said Doctrina. “In the exceedingly rare instances where some unforeseen conjunction of inherited strains has produced a defection, we of course, do not permit it to grow up to a life of misery.” “You suppress it?” I said shuddering. “Of course,” said Doctrina noticing my emotion. “In your sentimental day you preferred, in order to save your own sensibilities, to condemn it to a tragic existence.” “You will be surprised to know that even in my day such a course had its male adherents,” I replied defiantly. “But then even in your scientific breeding, failures do result.” “Less than one hundredth of one percent,” replied Doctrina. “Strangely enough, these throwbacks occur in the higher castes.” “When the intellectual conjunction is too strong?” “So it appears, for of course, with us the brain has become tremendously developed. That is one reason why, in the case of the male, we have found it advisable to perfect the physical vigor at the expense of the mental.” I had all I could do not to betray myself at this insolence. As it was, I could not help saying: “But tell me, why, Doctrina, you are so set against the male?” “I was born in a time when the memory of the male catastrophe was still fresh. I do not theorize. I know. Are you defending that era of tragic futility?” “God forbid!” I hastened to reply. “I am only curious. But men of genius, for I believe that genius still shows itself in my decadent sex, are not then permitted to breed?”