easy for her confinement to take place privately."

"She has already risked her life; and I cannot consent to be mixed up in
this affair, for fear of the consequences."

"Could not, for instance," said the marquis, "a confinement be effected
without pain?"

"I don't know about that, but this I do know, that I shall take very
good care not to practise any method contrary to the laws of nature."

"You are deceiving me: you are acquainted with this method, you have
already practised it upon a certain person whom I could name to you."

"Who has dared to calumniate me thus? I operate only after the
decision of the Faculty. God forbid that I should be stoned by all the
physicians, and perhaps expelled from France!"

"Will you then let me die of despair? If I were capable of making a bad
use of your secrets, I could have done so long ago, for I know them.
In Heaven's name, do not dissimulate any longer, and tell me how it is
possible to stifle the pangs of labour. Do you want more gold? Here it
is." And he threw more Louis on the table.

"Stay," said the matron: "there is perhaps a method which I think I
have discovered, and which I have never employed, but I believe it
efficacious."

"But if you have never employed it, it may be dangerous, and risk the
life of the lady whom I love."