LUCIE. I! No, indeed. Most likely you have said as much to my husband. Won’t he believe you?
HOURTIN. You must make him realize that the responsibility of having a child, great as it always is, becomes terrible when, so far from its being born into normal circumstances, it runs the risk of going into the world worse equipped than usual. To give birth to a child doomed to unhappiness or likely to be an invalid or incapable of growing up is like crippling someone. It is as much a crime as robbery or murder. Children ought to be deliberately and soberly brought into the world by parents healthy enough to give them health and of sufficient means to ensure their complete development. You must forgive me. When I get on this subject I hardly know how to stop. But really there is so much unavoidable misery and distress that we ought not to add to the sum of general suffering for which there is no remedy.
Enter Madeleine. She wears an opera cloak and a mantilla over her evening dress. During the following scene Josephine helps her off with her things.
MADELEINE. How do you do, Dr. Hourtin? I’m so glad to find you still here. I’ve only just been able to get away from the party. I had to go. There’s nothing serious the matter with the children, I hope?
HOURTIN. Nothing serious. With the care of a mother like theirs, I have every confidence. Now I was just going. Good bye.
MADELEINE. Good bye. Thank you.
LUCIE. I’m extremely grateful to you, Dr. Hourtin.
HOURTIN. Don’t mention it. Good bye, good bye. [He goes out].
LUCIE. Oh, Madeleine!
MADELEINE. What is it?