wedgecroft. Well, if she'd told me the truth! . . No, anyhow I couldn't. I'm sure there was no excuse. One can't run these risks.
farrant. Quite right, quite right.
wedgecroft. There are men who do on one pretext or another.
farrant. [Not too shocked to be curious.] Are there really?
wedgecroft. Oh yes, men well known . . in other directions. I could give you four addresses . . but of course I wasn't going to give her one. Though there again . . if she'd told me the whole truth! . . My God, women are such fools! And they prefer quackery . . look at the decent doctors they simply turn into charlatans. Though, there again, that all comes of letting a trade work mysteriously under the thumb of a benighted oligarchy . . which is beside the question. But one day I'll make you sit up on the subject of the Medical Council, Horsham.
horsham assumes an impenetrable air of statesmanship.
horsham. I know. Very interesting . . very important . . very difficult to alter the status quo.
wedgecroft. Then the poor little liar said she'd go off to an appointment with her dressmaker; and I heard nothing more till she sent for me a week later, and I found her almost too ill to speak. Even then she didn't tell me the truth! So, when O'Connell arrived, of course I spoke to him quite openly and all he told me in reply was that it wouldn't have been his child.
farrant. Poor devil!
wedgecroft. O'Connell?