MME. DUPONT. You dare to threaten us! Oh, you know the power that your knowledge gives you! You know what need we are in of your services and that if you abandon us perhaps our child will die! And if we give way to you, she will die all the same! [Wildly] O my God, my God, why cannot I sacrifice myself? Oh, if only my aged body could take the place of this woman’s young flesh, and my poor dry breasts give to our child the milk that would save her life! With what joy I would give myself up to this disease! With what rapture I would suffer the most horrible ravages that it could inflict on me! Oh, if I could but offer myself, without fear and without regret!
GEORGE [flings himself into her arms with sobs and cries of] Mother! Mother! Mother!
They weep.
DOCTOR [to himself, moved] Poor people! Poor people!
MME. DUPONT [sitting down with an air of resignation] Tell us what we must do.
DOCTOR. Keep the nurse here as dry-nurse so that she may not carry the infection elsewhere. We will feed the child by hand, and I beg you in all sincerity not to exaggerate the danger that will result from the change. I have every hope of restoring the baby to health in a short space of time; and I assure you that I will use every possible effort to bring about a happy conclusion. I will call again to-morrow. Good-day.
MME. DUPONT [without moving] Thank you, doctor.
GEORGE [going to the door and shaking hands] Thank you, thank you. [The doctor goes out. George comes back and goes to his mother with outstretched arms] Mother!
MME. DUPONT [repulsing him] Let me be.
GEORGE [checking himself] Are we not unhappy enough, without hating one another?