LUCIE. He won’t listen to me.
HOURTIN. You must insist. You must make him see his duty as a father.
LUCIE. It would be so useless that I shall not even try.
HOURTIN [rising] Then I have only one further piece of advice for you both: don’t have any more children.
LUCIE. No more children?
HOURTIN. No.
LUCIE. Why not?
HOURTIN. Because it is to be feared that any you might now have would be more diseased than the first.
LUCIE. Is that certain?
HOURTIN. In medicine there are no certainties; only probabilities. The chances are, perhaps, five to one that I am right. Would you venture to give any creature so doubtful an existence?