Act 2

Question 1

Emma:

My God! But - look here -

Answer 1

You know, don’t you?

Question 2

Jemi:

It’s a good job for him he doesn’t, isn’t it?

Answer 2

Why?

Question 3

Jemi:

Because mother’s been busy blaming everything on the young man who got this girl into trouble, and saying he shouldn’t escape and should be made an example of.

Answer 3

You haven’t made it any easier for me, have you, mother?

Question 4

Bibi:

And I’ll be obliged if you’ll let us get on without any further interruptions. Now then.

Answer 4

Could I have a drink first?

Question 5

Bibi:

When did you first meet this girl?

Answer 5

One night last November.

Question 6

Bibi:

Where did you meet her?

Answer 6

In the palace bar. I’d been there an hour or so with two or three chaps. I was a bit squiffy.

Question 7

Bibi:

What happened then?

Answer 7

I began talking to her, and stood her a few drinks. I was rather far gone by the time we had to go.

Question 8

Bibi:

Was she drunk too?

Answer 8

She told me afterwards that she was a bit, chiefly because she’d not had much to eat that day.

Question 9

Bibi:

You went with her to her lodgings that night?

Answer 9

Yes, I insisted – it seems. I’m not very clear about it, but afterwards she told me she didn’t want me to go in but that – well, I was in that state when a chap easily turns nasty – and I threatened to make a row.

Question 10

Bibi:

So she let you in?

Answer 10

Yes. And that’s when it happened. And I didn’t even remember – that’s the hellish thing. Oh – my God! - how stupid it all is!

Question 11

Bibi:

When did you meet her again?

Answer 11

About a fortnight afterwards.

Question 12

Bibi:

By appointment?

Answer 12

No. And I couldn’t remember her name or where she lived. It was all very vague. But I happened to see her again in the palace bar.

Question 13

Bibi:

But you took her home again?

Answer 13

Yes. And this time we talked a bit. She told me something about herself and I talked too. Told her my name and what I did.

Question 14

Bibi:

And you made love again?

Answer 14

Yes. I wasn’t in love with her or anything - but I liked her – she was pretty and a good sport -

Question 15

Emma:

So you had to go to bed with her?

Answer 15

Well, I’m old enough to be married, aren’t I, and I’m not married, and I hate these fat old tarts round the town – the ones I see some of your respectable friends with -

Question 16

Bibi:

Settle it afterwards. Did you arrange to see each other after that?

Answer 16

Yes. And the next time – or the time after that – she told me she thought she was going to have a baby.

Question 17

Bibi:

And of course she was very worried about it?

Answer 17

Yes, and so was I. I was in a hell of a state about it.

Question 18

Bibi:

Did she suggest that you ought to marry her?

Answer 18

No. she didn’t want me to marry her. Said I didn’t love her – and all that. In a way, she treated me – as if I were a kid. Though I was nearly as old as she was.

Question 19

Bibi:

So what did you propose to do?

Answer 19

Well, she hadn’t a job – and didn’t feel like trying again for one – and she’d no money left – so I insisted on giving her enough money to keep her going – until she refused to take any more -

Question 20

Bibi:

How much did you give her altogether?

Answer 20

I suppose - about fifty pounds all told.

Question 21

Bibi:

That’s my question too.

Answer 21

I got it - from the office -

Question 22

Emma:

My office?

Answer 22

Yes.

Question 23

Rose:

Eric! You stole money?

Answer 23

No, not really. I intended to pay it back.

Question 24

Emma:

We’ve heard that story before. How could you have paid it back?

Answer 24

I’d have managed somehow. I had to have some money-

Question 25

# Emma: I've got to cover this up as soon as I can. You damned fool – why didn't you come to me when you found yourself in this mess?

Answer 25

Because you're not the kind of father a chap could go to when he's in trouble - that's why.

Question 26

# Bibi: Just one last question, that's all. The girl discovered that this money you were giving her was stolen, didn't she?

Answer 26

Yes. That was the worst of all. She wouldn't take any more, and she didn't want to see me again. (sudden startled tone.) Here, but how did you know that? Did she tell you?

Question 27

# Jemi: She told mother.

Answer 27

She told you? Did she come here – but then she couldn't have done, she didn't even know I lived here. What happened?

Question 28

# Bibi: I'll tell you. She went to your mother's committee for help, after she'd done with you. Your mother refused that help.

Answer 28

Then – you killed her. She came to you to protect me – and you turned her away – yes, and you killed her – and the child she'd have had too –your own grandchild – you killed them both – damn you, damn you -

Question 29

# Rose: No - Eric - please - I didn't know - I didn't understand -

Answer 29

You don't understand anything. You never did. You never even tried - you

Question 30

# Emma: You're the one I blame for this.

Answer 30

I'll bet I am.

Question 31

# Emma: Most of this is bound to come out. There'll be a public scandal.

Answer 31

Well, I don't care now.

Question 32

# Emma: But I care. I was almost certain for a knighthood in the next Honours List -

Answer 32

Oh – for God's sake! What does it matter now whether they give you a knighthood or not?

Question 33

# Emma: And you don't want me to tell you what I've learnt, I hope. When I look back on tonight – when I think of what I was feeling when the five of us sat down to dinner at that table-

Answer 33

Yes, and do you remember what you said to Gerald and me after dinner, when you were feeling so pleased with yourself? You told us that a man has to make his own way, look after himself and mind his own business, and that we weren't to take any notice of these cranks who tell us that everybody has to look after everybody else, as if we were all mixed up together. Do you remember? Yes – and then one of those cranks walked in – the Inspector. I didn't notice you told him that it's every man for himself.

Question 34

# Jemi: Is that when the Inspector came, just after father said that?

Answer 34

Yes. What of it?

Question 35

# Emma: I won't have that sort of talk. Any more of that and you leave this room.

Answer 35

That'll be terrible for her, won't it?

Question 36

# Jemi: And mother hardened her hearth and gave her the final push that finished her. That's what's important – and not whether a man is a police inspector or not.

Answer 36

He was our inspector all right.

Question 37

# Rose: Of course it does.

Answer 37

No, Sheila's right. It doesn't

Question 38

# Emma: And then, instead of standing up to him, you let him bluff you into talking about your private affairs. You ought to have stood up to him.

Answer 38

Well, I didn't notice you standing up to him.

Question 39

# Emma: What chance had I after that? I was a fool not to have insisted upon seeing him alone.

Answer 39

That wouldn't have worked.

Question 40

# Emma: If you've nothing more sensible to say, Sheila you'd better keep quiet.

Answer 40

She's right, though.

Question 41

# Emma: Good! Eric, sit down.

Answer 41

I'm alright.

Question 42

# Emma: You're anything but all right. And you needn't stand there – as if – as if –

Answer 42

As if - what?

Question 43

# Emma: Just remember your own position, young man. If anybody's up to the neck in this business, you are, so you'd better take some interest in it.

Answer 43

I do take some interest in it. I take too much, that's my trouble.

Question 44

# Rose: To behave sensibly, Sheila - which is more than you're doing.

Answer 44

What's the use of talking about behaving sensibly. You're beginning to pretend now that nothing's really happened at all. And I can't see it like that. This girl's still dead, isn't she? Nobody's brought her to life, have they?

Question 45

# Jemi: That's just what I feel, Eric. And it's what they don't seem to understand.

Answer 45

Whoever that chap was, the fact remains that I did what I did. And mother did what she did. And the rest of you did what you did to her. It's still the same rotten story whether it's been told to a police inspector or to somebody else. According to you, I ought to feel a lot better - I stole some money, Gerald, you might as well know - I don't care, let him know. The money's not the important thing. It's what happened to the girl and what we all did to her that matters. And I still feel the same about it, and that's why I don't feel like sitting down and having a nice cosy talk.

Question 46

# Emma: Well, my dear, they're so damned exasperating. They just won't try to understand our position or to see the difference between a lot of stuff like this coming out in a private and a downright public scandal.

Answer 46

And I say the girl's dead and we all helped to kill her - and that's what matters -

Question 47

# Emma: Some fathers I know would have kicked you out of the house anyhow by this time. So hold your tongue if you want to stay here.

Answer 47

I don't give a damn now whether I stay here or not.

Question 48

# Jemi: But that won't bring Eva Smith back to life, will it?

Answer 48

And it doesn't alter the fact that we all helped to kill her.

Question 49

# Ros: But is it a fact?

Answer 49

Of course it is. You don't know the whole story yet.

Question 50

# Ros: Now what does he do? Very artfully, working on bits of information he's picked up here and there, he bluffs us into confessing that we've all been mixed up in this girl's life in one way or another.

Answer 50

And so we have.

Question 51

# Emma: Let's see how that would work. Now- no, it wouldn't.

Answer 51

We all admitted it.

Question 52

# Ros: Did he ask you to identify a photograph, Eric?

Answer 52

No. He didn't need a photograph by the time he'd got round to me. But obviously it must have been the girl I knew who went to see mother.

Question 53

# Ros: Why must it?

Answer 53

She said she had to help because she wouldn't take any more stolen money. And the girl I knew had told me that already.

Question 54

# Ros: Even then, that may have been all nonsense.

Answer 54

I don't see much nonsense about it when a girl goes and kills herself. You lot may be letting yourselves out nicely, but I can't. Nor can mother. We did her in all right.

Question 55

# Emma: That interview with your mother could have been just as much a put-up job, like all this police inspector business. The whole damned thing can have been a piece of bluff.

Answer 55

How can it? The girl's dead, isn't she?

Question 56

# Ros: What girl? There were probably four or five different girls.

Answer 56

That doesn't matter to me. The one I knew is dead.

Question 57

# Emma: She drank some strong disinfectant. Died in agony-

Answer 57

All right, don't pile it on.

Question 58

# Emma: Oh – let's admit that. He had the laugh of us all right.

Answer 58

He could laugh his head off - if I knew it really was all a hoax.

Question 59

# Jemi: You're pretending everything's just as it was before.

Answer 59

I'm not!

Question 60

# Jemi: Fire and blood and anguish. And it frightens me the way you talk, and I can't listen to any more of it.

Answer 60

And I agree with Sheila. It frightens me too.