d wish that I put it
upon a mode of nourishment which the doctors condemn, even for vigorous
infants! You expect that I will let myself be taken in like that? I
answer you: she shall have the milk which she needs, my poor little one!
If there was a single thing that one could do to save her--I should be
a criminal to neglect it!" And Madame Dupont broke out, with furious
scorn, "The nurse! The nurse! We shall know how to do our duty--we
shall take care of her, repay her. But our child before all! No sir,
no! Everything that can be done to save our baby I shall do, let it cost
what it will. To do what you say--you don't realize it--it would be as
if I should kill the child!" In the end the agonized woman burst into
tears. "Oh, my poor little angel! My little savior!"

George had never ceased sobbing while his mother spoke; at these last
words his sobs became loud cries. He struck the floor with his foot, he
tore his hair, as if he were suffering from violent physical pain. "Oh,
oh, oh!" he cried. "My little child! My little child!" And then, in a
horrified whisper to himself, "I am a wretch! A criminal!"

"Madame," said the doctor, "you must calm yourself; you must both calm
yourselves. You will not help out the situation by lamentations. You
must learn to take it with calmness."

Madame Dupont set her lips together, and with a painful effort recovered
her self-control. "You are right, sir," she said, in a low voice. "I ask
your pardon; but if you only knew what that child means to me! I lost
one at that age. I am an old woman, I am a widow--I had hardly hoped to
live long enough to be a grandmother. But, as you say--we must be calm."
She turned to the young man, "Calm yourself, my son. It is a poor way to
show our love for the child, to abandon ourselves to tears. Let us talk,
Doctor, and seriously--coldly. But I declare to you that nothing will
ever induce me to put the child on the bottle, when I know that it might
kill her. That is all I can say."

The doctor replied: "This isn't the first time that I find myself in
the present situation. Madame, I declare to you that always--ALWAYS,
you understand--persons who have rejected my advice have had reason to
repent it cruelly."

"The only thing of which I should repent--" began the other.

"You simply do not know," interrupted the doctor, "what such a nurse is
capable of. You cannot imagine what bitterness--legitimate
bitterness, you understand--joined to the rapaci