GEORGE [_imploring him_] You will look after my little girl all the same, won’t you? DOCTOR [_shrugging his shoulders. Low_] Fool! GEORGE [_not hearing_] I could only get my marriage put off six months. DOCTOR. Enough, enough. That is not my business. I was wrong even to show you my indignation. I should have left you to judge yourself. I am here only concerned with the present and the future, with the child and with the nurse. GEORGE. She is not in danger? DOCTOR. The nurse is in danger of being contaminated. GEORGE. No, but—my child? DOCTOR. For the moment the symptoms are not disquieting. GEORGE. Thank you. [_More easily_] About the nurse—you were saying—Do you mind if I call my mother? She knows more about these things than I do. DOCTOR. As you please. GEORGE [_going to the door and coming back much moved_] There is one thing I should like to ask you. Could you contrive that no one—my wife—should know what has happened? If my poor wife knew that it was I who was the cause—it is for her sake that I beg you. She is not to blame. DOCTOR. I promise you that I will do everything in my power to save her from learning the real nature of the child’s illness. GEORGE. Oh, thank you, thank you. DOCTOR. You need not. If I tell lies, it will be for her sake and not for yours. GEORGE. And my mother? DOCTOR. Your mother knows the truth. GEORGE. But— DOCTOR. Please, please. We have many very serious matters to discuss. _George goes to the door and brings in his mother. She bows to the doctor, makes a sign to him to be seated in the armchair near the fireplace, and sits down herself on the chair near the little table. George takes a seat to the left in front of the desk._ DOCTOR. I have written a prescription for the child which will, I hope, improve its condition and prevent any fresh disorders. But my duty, and yours, does not stop there. If it is not too late, the health of the nurse must be protected. MME. DUPONT. Tell us what we must do. DOCTOR. She must stop giving milk to the child. MME. DUPONT. You mean that we must change the nurse? DOCTOR. No. I mean that the child cannot continue to be fed at the breast either by this nurse or by any healthy nurse. MME. DUPONT. Why? DOCTOR. Because the child would communicate its complaint to the person who gave it milk. MME. DUPONT. But, doctor, if the baby is brought up on the bottle it will die. GEORGE [_breaking into sobs_] Oh, my poor little girl! Oh, my God, it’s me! Oh! Oh! DOCTOR. Careful treatment, with sterilized milk— MME. DUPONT. That may succeed with healthy children, but at the age of three months a sickly child such as ours cannot be fed by hand. Such a child has all the more need of being fed at the breast. That is true? DOCTOR. Yes; but— MME. DUPONT. In that case you will realize that between the life of the child and the health of a nurse I have no choice. GEORGE [_sobbing_] Oh! Oh! Oh!