DOCTOR. To avoid all discussion, I may add that even were I free, I should refuse your request.
LOCHES. May I ask why?
DOCTOR. I should regret having helped you to obtain a divorce.
LOCHES. Then just because you hold this or that theory, because your profession has rendered you sceptical or insensible to the sight of misery like ours, my daughter must bear this man’s name to the end of her life!
DOCTOR. It would be in your daughter’s own interest that I should refuse.
LOCHES. Indeed! You have a strange conception of her interest.
DOCTOR [very gently] In your present state of excitement you will probably begin to abuse me before five minutes are over. That will not disturb a man of my experience, but you see why I refused to discuss these subjects. However, since I have let myself in for it, I may as well explain my position. You ask me for a certificate in order to prove to the court that your son-in-law has contracted syphilis?
LOCHES. Yes.
DOCTOR. You do not consider that in doing so you will publicly acknowledge that your daughter has been exposed to the infection. The statement will be officially registered in the papers of the case. Do you suppose that after that your daughter is likely to find a second husband?
LOCHES. She will never marry again.