GEORGE. Yes, O God, yes!
MME. DUPONT [more and more exalted] I do not care! I do not care if I am punished for it in this world and the next! If it is a crime, if it is a sin, I accept all the responsibility, however heavy it may be! Yes, yes! If it must be, I will lose my soul to save our child’s life, our little one’s! I know that hell exists for the wicked: that is one of my profoundest convictions. Then let God judge me—if I am damned, so much the worse for me!
DOCTOR. I shall not allow you to take that responsibility. To enable you to do so, my consent would be necessary, and I refuse it.
MME. DUPONT. What do you mean?
DOCTOR. I shall speak to the nurse and give her the fullest particulars, which I am convinced you have not done.
MME. DUPONT. What! You, a doctor, would betray family secrets entrusted to you in the strictest confidence! Secrets of this kind!
DOCTOR. The betrayal, if it is one, is forced on me by the law.
MME. DUPONT. The law! I thought you were bound to secrecy?
DOCTOR [turning the pages of the volume of reports] Not in this case. Here is a judgment given by the court at Dijon: I thought that I might have to read it to you. [Reading] ‘A doctor who knowingly omits to inform a nurse of the dangers incurred by her in giving milk to a syphilitic child may be held responsible in damages for the results caused by her ignorance.’ You see that the law is against you, as well as your conscience; and I may add that, even were it not so, I should not allow you to be led by your feelings into committing such a crime. If you do not consent to have the child fed by hand, I shall either speak to the nurse or give up the case.