DOCTOR. Your affection leads you to express an incredible sentiment. But it is not for you to choose. I shall forbid the child to be brought up at the breast. The health of this woman does not belong to you. MME. DUPONT. Nor the life of our child to you. If there is one way to save its life, it is to give it every possible attention, and you want me to treat it in a way that you doctors condemn even for healthy children. My little one! You think I will let her die like that! Oh, I shall take good care she does not. Neglect the one single thing that can save her! It would be criminal. As for the nurse, we will indemnify her. We will do everything in our power, everything but that. No, no, no! Whatever can be done for our baby shall be done, cost what it may. But that—You don’t consider what you are asking. It would be as if I killed my child. [_Bursting into tears_] Oh, my little angel, my own little Saviour! _George has not stopped sobbing since he first began. At his mother’s last words his sobs become almost cries. His anguish is pitiable to see._ GEORGE. Oh, oh, oh! My little child! My little child! Oh, oh! [_In an undertone_] Oh, what a scoundrel I am! What a criminal! DOCTOR. Calm yourself, madam, I beg. You will not improve matters in this way. Try to consider them coolly. MME. DUPONT. You are right. I beg your pardon. But if you knew how much this child is to me. I lost one at the same age. I am old and widowed—I did not expect to live to see my grandchildren. You are right. George, be calm—we will show our love by being calm. Now then, we will talk seriously and coldly. But I warn you that you will not succeed in making me consent to any but the very best conditions for the child. I shall not let her be killed by being taken from the breast! DOCTOR. This is not the first time I have found myself in this situation, and I must begin by telling you that parents who have refused to be guided by my advice have invariably repented of it most bitterly. MME. DUPONT. The only thing of which I shall repent— DOCTOR. You are evidently unaware of what the rapacity and malice of peasants such as this nurse are capable, especially against those of superior station. In this case, moreover, her enmity would be legitimate. MME. DUPONT. Oh! What can she do? DOCTOR. She can bring an action against you. MME. DUPONT. She is far too stupid to think of such a thing. DOCTOR. Others will put it into her head. MME. DUPONT. She is too poor to pay the expenses of going to law. DOCTOR. Then you propose to profit by her ignorance and her poverty? Besides, she could obtain the assistance of the court. MME. DUPONT. Never! Surely, never. DOCTOR. Indeed? For my part I know at least ten such cases. In every case where the fact was proved, judgment was given against the parents. MME. DUPONT. Not in a case like this! Not where the life of a poor innocent little child was at stake. You must be mistaken.