Read "The Child of the Phalanstery" by Grant Allen online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Brother Eustace, physiologist to the phalanstery, looked very grave and sad indeed as he passed from the Mothers' Room into the Conversazione in search of the hierarch. "A child is born into the phalanstery," he said gloomily; but his face conveyed at once a far deeper and more pregnant meaning than his mere words could carry to the ear.
The hierarch rose hastily and glanced into his dark keen eyes with an inquiring look. "Not something amiss? " he said eagerly, with an infinite tenderness in his fatherly voice. "Don't tell me that, Eustace. Not. oh, not a child that the phalanstery must not for its own sake permit to live! Oh, Eustace, not, I hope, idiotic! And I gave my consent too; I gave my consent for pretty gentle little Olive's sake! Heaven grant I was not too much moved by her prettiness and her delicacy, for I love her, Eustace, I love her like a daughter."