--After all, I'd like to know whether it'll be a boy or a girl.
--I admit, it's interesting to know whom you'll have to deal with.
--And you are too sad. I don't like that.
--Don't wrangle. Don't wrangle. We are all both sad and merry. Let each be what she pleases. _(Silence)_
--When they are born, they are so funny. Babies are very funny.
--And very exacting, I don't like them. They begin to cry at once and make demands, as if they expected everything to be ready for them. Even before looking, they know there is a breast and milk, and demand them. Then they demand to be put to sleep and rocked and dandled and patted on their red backs. I like them better when they die. Then they're less exacting. They stretch out of themselves and don't ask to be rocked.
--No, they are very funny. I like to wash them when they are born.
--I like to wash them when they are dead.
--Don't dispute. Don't dispute. Each will have her way. One will wash the child when it is born, another when it dies.
--But why do they think they have a right to make demands the moment they are born? I don't like it. They don't _think_ they have. It's their stomachs that make the demands.
_[The Old Women laugh. The cries begin again._
--Animals give birth to their offspring more easily.
--And they die more easily, and live more easily; I have a cat. You ought to see how fat and happy she is.
--I have a dog, and I tell him every day: "You are going to die." His only reply is to show his teeth and to wag his tail gayly.
--Now she'll either die or be delivered. I feel that the whole remnant of her strength is in that wail.
SOMEONE IN GRAY _(speaks in a resonant, powerful voice)_
_[Almost simultaneously with His announcement the crying of an infant is heard and the candle in His hand lights. A tall candle. It burns hesitatingly and feebly. Gradually the flame grows stronger. The corner in which Someone in Gray stands motionless is always darker than the other corners, and the yellow flame illumines His blunt chin, His tightly closed lips, and His massive, bony face. The upper part of His face is concealed by His cap. He is somewhat taller than an ordinary man.
He puts the long, thick candle in an antique candlestick. His hand comes into relief against the green bronze. It is gray, firm, with long, thin fingers.