Ah, poor thing! she is having a hard and painful childbed of it. Here have we been sitting these sixteen mortal hours, and she screaming the whole time! True, she is quieter now, and only gasps and moans, but, a short while ago, it fairly split one's ears to hear her!
The doctor thinks she is going to die.
No, no! What the doctor said was that the child will be born dead, but the mother herself recover.
But why need there be births at all? They are such painful things!
Well, why need there be deaths either? They are more painful still, are they not?
[The Old Women chuckle again.]
Ah well, 'tis the way of the world—births and deaths, births and deaths.
Yes; and then more births.
[For the third time the Old Women chuckle. At the same moment there is heard behind the scenes a stifled cry, as of a woman in agony.]
There! She is going to scream again!