GEORGE. Well, since you stick to it, even if that were possible, I could not take back my signature to the contract for the purchase of a notary’s practice in two months time. DOCTOR. All these— GEORGE. You won’t tell me that I have been imprudent because I have not disposed of my wife’s dowry till after the honeymoon— DOCTOR. All these considerations are foreign to me. I am a physician, nothing but a physician. I can only tell you this: if you marry before three or four years have elapsed you will be a criminal. GEORGE. No, no, you are more than a physician: you are a confessor as well. You are not only a man of science. You can’t observe me as you would something in your laboratory and then simply say: ‘You have this, science says that. Now be off with you.’ My whole life depends upon you. You must listen to me; because when you know everything you will understand the situation and will find the means to cure me in a month. DOCTOR. I can only tell you over and over again that no such means exist. It is impossible to be certain of your cure—as far as one can be certain—under three or four years. GEORGE. I tell you that you must find one. Listen to me: if I am not married, I shall not get the dowry. Will you kindly tell me how I am to carry out the contract I have signed? DOCTOR. Oh, if that is the question, it is very simple. I can easily shew you the way out of the difficulty. Get into touch with some rich man, do everything you can to gain his confidence, and when you have succeeded, rook him of all he has. GEORGE. I’m not in the mood for joking. DOCTOR. I am not joking. To rob that man, or even to murder him, would not be a greater crime than you would commit in marrying a young girl in good health to get hold of her dowry, if to do so you exposed her to the terrible consequences of the disease you would give her. GEORGE. Terrible? DOCTOR. Terrible; and death is not the worst of them. GEORGE. But you told me just now— DOCTOR. Just now I did not tell you everything. This disease, even when it is all but suppressed, still lies below the surface ready to break out again. Taken all round, it is serious enough to make it an infamy to expose a woman to it in order to avoid even the greatest inconvenience. GEORGE. But is it certain that she would catch it? DOCTOR. Even with the best intentions, I won’t tell you lies. No; it is not absolutely certain. It is probable. And there is something else I will tell you. Our remedies are not infallible. In a certain number of cases—a very small number, scarcely five per cent.—they have no effect. You may be one of these exceptions or your wife may be. In that case—I will use an expression you used just now—in that case the result would be the most frightful horrors. GEORGE. Give me your advice.