"Now your sex has discovered its mistake. After countless centuries of intellectual and physical bondage Woman has calmly risen to assert herself--not as the peer of man, _but as his superior_!" "What!" exclaimed Langdon, angrily. "Certainly. Since prehistoric times man has attempted to govern and shape the destinies of all things living on this earth. He has made of his reign a miserable fizzle. It is our turn now to try our hands. "And so, at last, woman steps forward, tipping the symbols of despotic power--sceptre and crown--from the nerveless hand and dishonoured brow of her recent lord and master! And down he goes under her feet--where he belongs." Langdon, unable to endure such language, attempted to sit up, but the net interfered and he lay clawing at the meshes while the girl calmly continued: "The human race, as it is at present, is a disgrace to the world it inhabits. We women have now decided to repeople the earth scientifically with a race as wholesome in body as our instruction shall render it in mind. Those among us women who are adjudged physically and mentally perfect for this great and sacred work have pledged ourselves to the sacrifice--_pro bono publico_. "We shall pick out, from your degenerate sex, such physically perfect individuals as chance to remain; we shall regard our marriages with them as purely scientific and cold-blooded affairs; we have begun, for the purposes of re-populating the world by capturing four symmetrical young men. You are the fifth. The Regents of the New Race University will select for you several girls who, theoretically, are best qualified to become the mothers of your----" "Stop!" shouted Langdon, tearing violently at the net. "I don't want you to talk that way to me!" "What way?" "You know perfectly well," he retorted, blushing vividly. "I won't stand it!" "What a slave to prudery and smug convention you are," she observed with amused contempt. "Nobody in the University is going to shock your modesty." "Well, what _are_ they going to do?" "Turn you loose in the preserve after the Regents have inspected you." "And then?" "Oh, I suppose two or three girls will be selected." "To do w-what?" "To pay you marked attention." "M-m-marked _what_?" "Attention. Two or three girls will begin to court you." "How?" "Oh, the usual way--by sending you flowers and books and bon-bons, and asking permission to call on you in your cave," she said carelessly. There was an embarrassed pause, then: "Will _you_ be one of those--those aspirants to my hand?" he inquired. She said indifferently: "I hope not. I'm sure I don't desire to be the mother of----" "Stop! I tell you to stop conversing on such topics!" he yelled, struggling and squirming and finally rolling over, all fours in the air.