A mighty comfortable soul she was, giving one the nice smooth mother-feeling a man likes in a woman, and yet giving also the clear intelligence and dependableness I used to assume to be masculine qualities.

We had talked volumes already.
"See here," said I."Here was this dreadful period when they got far too thick, and decided to limit the population.

We have a lot of talk about that among us, but your position is so different that I'd like to know a little more about it.
"I understand that you make Motherhood the highest social service--a sacrament, really; that it is only undertaken once, by the majority of the population; that those held unfit are not allowed even that; and that to be encouraged to bear more than one child is the very highest reward and honor in the power of the state." (She interpolated here that the nearest approach to an aristocracy they had was to come of a line of "Over Mothers"-- those who had been so honored.) "But what I do not understand, naturally, is how you prevent it.

I gathered that each woman had five.

You have no tyrannical husbands to hold in check--and you surely do not destroy the unborn--" The look of ghastly horror she gave me I shall never forget.