DOCTOR. Even with the best intentions, I won’t tell you lies. No; it is not absolutely certain. It is probable. And there is something else I will tell you. Our remedies are not infallible. In a certain number of cases—a very small number, scarcely five per cent.—they have no effect. You may be one of these exceptions or your wife may be. In that case—I will use an expression you used just now—in that case the result would be the most frightful horrors.
GEORGE. Give me your advice.
DOCTOR. The only advice I can give you is not to marry. To put it in this way, you owe a debt. Perhaps its repayment will not be exacted; but at the same time your creditor may come down on you suddenly, after a long interval, with the most pitiless brutality. Come, come! You are a man of business. Marriage is a contract. If you marry without saying anything, you will be giving an implied warranty for goods which you know to be bad. That is the term, isn’t it? It would be a fraud which ought to be punishable by law.
GEORGE. But what can I do?
DOCTOR. Go to your father-in-law and tell him the unvarnished truth.
GEORGE. If I do that, it will not be a delay of three or four years that he will impose on me. He will refuse his consent for good.
DOCTOR. In that case, tell him nothing.
GEORGE. If I don’t give him a reason, I don’t know what he won’t do. He is a man of the most violent temper. Besides, it will be still worse for Henriette than for me. Look here, doctor; from what I have said to you, no doubt you think I simply care for the money. Well, I do think it is one’s primary duty to make certain of a reasonable amount of comfort. From my youth upwards I have always been taught that. Nowadays one must think of it, and I should never have engaged myself to a girl without money. It’s perfectly natural. [With emotion] But she is so splendid, she is so much better than I am that I love her—as people love one another in books. Of course it would be a frightful disappointment not to have the practice that I have bought, but that would not be the worst for me. The worst would be losing her. If you could see her, if you knew her, you would understand. [Taking out his pocket book] Look here, here’s her photograph. Just look at it. [The doctor gently refuses it]. Oh, my darling, to think that I must lose you or else—Ah! [He kisses the photograph, then puts it back in his pocket]. I beg your pardon. I am being ridiculous. I know I am sometimes. Only put yourself in my place. I love her so.
DOCTOR. It is on that account that you must not marry her.
GEORGE. But how can I get out of it? If I draw back without saying anything the truth will leak out and I shall be dishonored.