Eugène Brieux

“ 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. ”

“ George thought of his own mother, and what she would think if she could know about his night’s adventure. He thought again and again, with a pang of anguish, of Henriette. Could it be possible that a man who was engaged, whose marriage contract had actually been signed, who was soon to possess the love of a beautiful and noble girl—that such a man could have been weak enough and base enough to let himself be trapped into such a low action? ”

“ But I think, young man, that I know more about life than you do. When a man and a woman have once committed such a sin, it is easy for them to slip back. The less time they spend talking about their misfortunes, and being generous and forbearing to each other, the better for them both.”
“But, Doctor,” cried George. “I love Henriette! I could not possibly love anyone else. It would be horrible to me!”
“Yes,” said the doctor. “But you are not living with Henriette. You are wandering round, not knowing what to do with yourself next.” ”

“ It is the poisoned blood of the prostitute which poisons my daughter and her child; that abject creature, she lives, she lives in us! She belongs to our family—he has given her a seat at our hearth! He has soiled the imagination and the thoughts of my poor child, as he has soiled her body. He has united forever in her soul the idea of love which she has placed so high, with I know not what horrors of the hospitals. He has tainted her in her dignity and her modesty, in her love as well as in her baby. He has struck her down with physical and moral decay, he has overwhelmed her with vileness. ”

“ Three, sir! Three out of twenty-eight! Syphilis is above everything a murderer of children. Herod reigns in France, and over all the earth, and begins each year his massacre of the innocents; and if it be not blasphemy against the sacredness of life, I say that the most happy are those who have disappeared. Visit our children’s hospitals! We know too well the child of syphilitic parents; the type is classical; the doctors can pick it out anywhere. Those little old creatures who have the appearance of having already lived, and who have kept the stigmata of all out infirmities, of all our decay. ”

“ Like all other diseases, that is one of our misfortunes, and it is never shameful to be unfortunate—even if one has deserved it.” The doctor paused, and then with some excitement he went on: “Come, sir, come, we must understand each other. Among men the most exacting, among those who with their middle-class prudery dare not pronounce the name of syphilis, or who make the most terrifying faces, the most disgusted, when they consent to speak of it—who regard the syphilitic as sinners—I should wish to know how many there are who have never exposed themselves to a similar misadventure. ”

“ George answered, unblushingly, ‘answered, unblushingly, “Yes!” He was beside himself with terror and distress.
The other’s reply was delivered in a solemn tone. “Understand, sir, for every one of out patients we do all that we can, whether it be the greatest personage, or the last comer to out hospital clinic. We have no secrets in reserve for those who are more fortunate, or less fortunate than the others, and who are in a hurry to be cured.”
George gazed at him for a moment in bewilderment and despair, and then suddenly bowed his head. “Good-by, Doctor,” he answered. ”

“ Said the doctor: “Five times out of ten, in the chair where you are sitting, people talk like that, perfectly sincerely. Each one believes himself more unhappy than all the others; but after thinking it over, and listening to me, they understand that this disease is a companion with whom one can live. Just as in every household, one gets along at the cost of mutual concessions, that’s all. Come, sir, I tell you again, there is nothing about it that is not perfectly ordinary, perfectly natural, perfectly common; it is an accident which can happen to any one. ”

“ The play is, above all, a powerful plea for the tearing away of the veil of mystery that has so universally shrouded this subject of the penalty of sexual immorality. It is a plea for light on this hidden danger, that fathers and mothers, young men and young women, may know the terrible price that must be paid, not only by the generation that violates the law, but by the generations to come. It is a serious question just how the education of men and women, especially young men and young women, in the vital matters of sex relationship should be carried on. ”

“ He began to write a prescription, without seeming to notice how George turned page with terror. “Come,” he said, after a silence, “you must have known the truth pretty well.”
“No, no, sir!” exclaimed George.
“Well,” said the other, “you have syphilis.”
George was utterly stunned. “My God!” he exclaimed.
The doctor, having finished his prescription, looked up and observed his condition. “Don’t trouble yourself, sir. Out of every seven men you meet upon the street, in society, or at the theater, there is at least one who has been in your condition. One out of seven—fifteen per cent!” ”

“ But the doctor was quick to answer his arguments. “Poisoners?” he said. “You forget that they have first been poisoned. Every one of these women who communicates the disease has first received it from some man.”
Monsieur Loches advanced to his second idea, to punish the men. But the doctor had little interest in this idea either. He had seen it tried so many times—such a law could never be enforced. What must come first was education, and by this means a modification of morals. People must cease to treat syphilis as a mysterious evil, of which not even the name could be pronounced. ”

“ You will say to her that a separation would be a misfortune for all; that her husband is the only one in the world who would be devoted enough to help her save her child. You will say to her that out of the ruins of her first happiness she can build herself another structure, far stronger. And, sir, you will add to that whatever your good heart may suggest—and we will arrange so that the next child of the pair shall be sound and vigorous.”
Monsieur Loches received this announcement with the same surprise that George himself had manifested. ”

“ There was a long silence; and then thinking that his friend, the deputy, had heard enough for one session, the doctor rose. He dismissed the woman, the cause of all George Dupont’s misfortunes, and turning to Monsieur Loches, said: “It was on purpose that I brought that wretched prostitute before you. In her the whole story is summed up—not merely the story of your son-in-law, but that of all the victims of the red plague. That woman herself is a victim, and she is a symbol of the evil which we have created and which falls upon our own heads again. ”

“ But when he came home and teased his wife about it, the laugh was not all on his side. Henriette had guessed the real meaning of his joke! She did not really mind—she took his jealousy as a sign of love, and was pleased with it. It is not until a third party come upon the scene that jealousy begins to be annoying.
So she had a merry time teasing George. “You are a great fellow! You have no idea how well I understand you—and after only a year of marriage!”
“You know me?” said the husband, curiously. (It is always so fascinating when anybody thinks she know us better than we know ourselves!) ”

“ George was almost beside himself. “I tell you you must find some means! Listen to me, sir—if I don’t get married I don’t get the dowry! And will you tell me how I can pay the notes I have signed?”
“Oh,” said the doctor, dryly, “if that is the question, it is very simple—I will give you a plan to get out of the affair. You will go and get acquainted with some rich man; you will do everything you can to gain his confidence; and when you have succeeded, you will plunder him.” ”

“ No young man who sees “Damaged Goods” will ever be the same again. If I wanted to build around an innocent boy buttresses of fire and granite, and lend him triple armour against temptation and the assaults of evil, I would put him for one evening under your influence. That which the teacher, the preacher and the parent have failed to accomplish it has been given to you to achieve. You have done a work for which your generation owes you an immeasurable debt of gratitude. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Before my husband’s misfortune, we were well fixed. So you see, I have a little pride. I have always managed to take care of myself. I am not a woman of the streets, and to stand around like that, with everybody else, to be obliged to tell all one’s miseries out loud before the world! I am wrong, I know it perfectly well; I argue with myself—but all the same, it’s hard, sir; I assure you, it is truly hard.”
“Poor woman!” said the doctor; and for a while there was a silence. Then he asked: “It was your husband who brought you the disease?” ”

“ So your daughter may fairly ask you, why you, being a man, being a father who ought to know these things, did not take as much care of her health as you took of her fortune. So it is, sir, that I say to you, forgive!”
But Monsieur Loches said again, “Never!”
And again the doctor sat and watched him for a minute. “Come, sir,” he began, finally, “since it is necessary to employ the last argument, I will do so. To be so severe and so pitiless—are you yourself without sin?”
The other answered, “I have never had a shameful disease.” ”

“ There is a great deal of concealment in the world about matters of sex; and in such matters the truth-telling man is apt to suffer in reputation in comparison with the truth-concealing one.
Nor had George really been altogether callous about the thing. It had happened that his best friend had died in his arms; and this had so affected the guilty pair that they had felt their relationship was no longer possible. She had withdrawn to nurse her grief alone, and George had been so deeply affected that he had avoided affairs and entanglements with women until his meeting with Lizette. ”

“ On the contrary, I hold out to you every hope; but I demand of you a delay of three or four years, because it will take me that time to find out if you are among the number of those unfortunate ones whom I pity with all my heart, for whom the disease is without mercy; because during that time you will be dangerous to your wife and to your children. The children I have not yet mentioned to you.”
Here the doctor’s voice trembled slightly. He spoke with moving eloquence. “Come, sir, you are an honest man; you are too young for such things not to move you; you are not insensible to duty. ”

“ It is that syphilis is an imperious mistress, who only demands that one should recognize her power. She is terrible for those who think her insignificant, and gentle with those who know how dangerous she is. You know that kind of mistress—who is only vexed when she is neglected. You may tell this to your daughter—you will restore her to the arms of her husband, from whom she has no longer anything to fear, and I will guarantee that you will be a happy grandfather two years from now.”
Monsieur Loches at last showed that he was weakened in his resolution. ”

“ Listen, doctor. From everything I have said to you, you may perhaps think I am a mercenary man. It is true that I want to get along in the world, that is only natural. But Henriette has such qualities; she is so much better than I, that I love her, really, as people love in novels. My greatest grief—it is not to give up the practice I have bought—although, indeed, it would be a bitter blow to me; my greatest grief would be to lose Henriette. If you could only see her, if you only knew her—then you would understand. I have her picture here—”
The young fellow took out his card-case. ”

“ You mean that the law gives me no weapon against a man who, knowing his condition, takes a young girl, sound, trusting, innocent, and befouls her with the result of his debauches—makes her the mother of a poor little creature, whose future is such that those who love her the most do not know whether they ought to pray for her life, or for her immediate deliverance? Sir,” he continued, in his orator’s voice, “that man has inflicted upon the woman he has married a supreme insult. He has made her the victim of the most odious assault. ”

“ Whatever George’s sins may have been, he was a man who had been chastened by suffering, and would know how to value a woman’s love for the rest of his life. Not all men knew that—not even those who had been fortunate in escaping from the so-called “shameful disease.”
Henriette was also hearing arguments from her father, who by this time had had time to think things over, and had come to the conclusion that the doctor was right. He had noted his son-in-law’s patience and penitence, and had also made sure that in spite of everything Henriette still loved him. The baby apparently was doing well ”