Act 3 Flashcards
Emma:
My God! But - look here -
You know, don’t you?
Jemi:
It’s a good job for him he doesn’t, isn’t it?
Why?
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.
You haven’t made it any easier for me, have you, mother?
Bibi:
And I’ll be obliged if you’ll let us get on without any further interruptions. Now then.
Could I have a drink first?
Bibi:
When did you first meet this girl?
One night last November.
Bibi:
Where did you meet her?
In the palace bar. I’d been there an hour or so with two or three chaps. I was a bit squiffy.
Bibi:
What happened then?
I began talking to her, and stood her a few drinks. I was rather far gone by the time we had to go.
Bibi:
Was she drunk too?
She told me afterwards that she was a bit, chiefly because she’d not had much to eat that day.
Bibi:
You went with her to her lodgings that night?
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.
Bibi:
So she let you in?
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!
Bibi:
When did you meet her again?
About a fortnight afterwards.
Bibi:
By appointment?
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.
Bibi:
But you took her home again?
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.
Bibi:
And you made love again?
Yes. I wasn’t in love with her or anything - but I liked her – she was pretty and a good sport -
Emma:
So you had to go to bed with her?
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 -
Bibi:
Settle it afterwards. Did you arrange to see each other after that?
Yes. And the next time – or the time after that – she told me she thought she was going to have a baby.
Bibi:
And of course she was very worried about it?
Yes, and so was I. I was in a hell of a state about it.
Bibi:
Did she suggest that you ought to marry her?
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.
Bibi:
So what did you propose to do?
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 -
Bibi:
How much did you give her altogether?
I suppose - about fifty pounds all told.
Bibi:
That’s my question too.
I got it - from the office -
Emma:
My office?
Yes.
Rose:
Eric! You stole money?
No, not really. I intended to pay it back.
Emma:
We’ve heard that story before. How could you have paid it back?
I’d have managed somehow. I had to have some money-
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?
Because you’re not the kind of father a chap could go to when he’s in trouble - that’s why.
Bibi:
Just one last question, that’s all. The girl discovered that this money you were giving her was stolen, didn’t she?
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?
Jemi:
She told mother.
She told you? Did she come here – but then she couldn’t have done, she didn’t even know I lived here. What happened?
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.
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 -
Rose:
No - Eric - please - I didn’t know - I didn’t understand -
You don’t understand anything. You never did. You never een tried - you
Emma:
You’re the one I blame for this.
I’ll bet I am.
Emma:
Most of this is bound to come out. There’ll be a public scandal.
Well, I don’t care now.
Emma:
But I care. I was almost certain for a knighthood in the next Honours List -
Oh – for God’s sake! What does it matter now whether they give you a knighthood or not?
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-
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.
Jemi:
Is that when the Inspector came, just after father said that?
Yes. What of it?
Emma:
I won’t have that sort of talk. Any more of that and you leave this room.
That’ll be terrible for her, won’t it?
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.
He was our inspector all right.
Rose:
Of course it does.
No, Sheila’s right. It doesn’t
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.
Well, I didn’t notice you standing up to him.
Emma:
What chance had I after that? I was a fool not to have insisted upon seeing him alone.
That wouldn’t have worked.
Emma:
If you’ve nothing more sensible to say, Sheila you’d better keep quiet.
She’s right, though.
Emma:
Good! Eric, sit down.
I’m alright.
Emma:
You’re anything but all right. And you needn’t stand there – as if – as if –
As if - what?
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.
I do take some interest in it. I take too much, that’s my trouble.
Rose:
To behave sensibly, Sheila - which is more than you’re doing.
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?
Jemi:
That’s just what I feel, Eric. And it’s what they don’t seem to understand.
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.
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.
And I say the girl’s dead and we all helped to kill her - and that’s what matters -
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.
I don’t give a damn now whether I stay here or not.
Jemi:
But that won’t bring Eva Smith back to life, will it?
And it doesn’t alter the fact that we all helped to kill her.
Ros:
But is it a fact?
Of course it is. You don’t know the whole story yet.
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.
And so we have.
Emma:
Let’s see how that would work. Now- no, it wouldn’t.
We all admitted it.
Ros:
Did he ask you to identify a photograph, Eric?
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.
Ros:
Why must it?
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.
Ros:
Even then, that may have been all nonsense.
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.
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.
How can it? The girl’s dead, isn’t she?
Ros:
What girl? There were probably four or five different girls.
That doesn’t matter to me. The one I knew is dead.
Emma:
She drank some strong disinfectant. Died in agony-
All right, don’t pile it on.
Emma:
Oh – let’s admit that. He had the laugh of us all right.
He could laugh his head off - if I knew it really was all a hoax.
Jemi:
You’re pretenging everything’s just as it was before.
I’m not!
Jemi:
Fire and blood and anguish. And it frightens me the way you talk, and I can’t listen to any more of it.
And I agree with Sheila. It frightens me too.
