第867页 / 共1294页

Now I am explaining the question of coming into the room in the

future society."

"And what's that, pray?"

"We had a debate lately on the question: Has a member of the

community the right to enter another member's room, whether man

or woman, at any time... and we decided that he has!"

"It might be at an inconvenient moment, he-he!"

Lebeziatnikov was really angry.

"You are always thinking of something unpleasant," he cried with

aversion. "Tfoo! How vexed I am that when I was expounding our

system, I referred prematurely to the question of personal

privacy! It's always a stumbling-block to people like you, they

turn it into ridicule before they understand it. And how proud

they are of it, too! Tfoo! I've often maintained that that

question should not be approached by a novice till he has a firm

faith in the system. And tell me, please, what do you find so

shameful even in cesspools? I should be the first to be ready to

clean out any cesspool you like. And it's not a question of

self-sacrifice, it's simply work, honourable, useful work which

is as good as any other and much better than the work of a

Raphael and a Pushkin, because it is more useful."