GEORGE. Mother! I beg you not to go, doctor.
MME. DUPONT [supplicating him] Oh, don’t abandon us! You can make allowances—If you only knew what this child was to me! I feel as if I had staved off death to wait for it. Have pity on us! Our poor little girl—she is the weakest, surely. Have pity on her! When you saw her tiny, suffering body, did you not feel any pity for her? Oh, I beseech you!
GEORGE. Doctor, we implore you!
DOCTOR. Indeed I pity her and I will do everything in my power to save her. But you must not ask me to sacrifice the health of a young and strong woman to that of a sickly infant. I will be no party to giving this woman a disease that would embitter the lives of her whole family, and almost certainly render her sterile.
MME. DUPONT [in a stifled voice] Oh, are there not enough of these peasants in the world!
DOCTOR. I beg your pardon?
MME. DUPONT [in the same tone] I said that if she had no more children, there would only be the fewer to be unhappy.
DOCTOR. It is useless for us to continue this discussion.
MME. DUPONT [rousing herself] I shall not take your advice! I shall not listen to you!
DOCTOR. There is one here already who regrets not having done so.