An Inspector Calls and Other Plays Page 11

  JANET: But you’re not going to do any work this week-end?

  ORMUND [now sitting with his notes]: I must. I’ve just been telephoning Sykes. We’ve a whole big scheme to work out before Wednesday.

  JANET: This isn’t going to be much of a change for you, is it? More work – more whisky.

  ORMUND: A change is too much to hope for. Let me just keep ticking over – just ticking over – that’ll do.

  JANET [at once sorry and protesting]: I can’t blame you for being bitter, Walter, but it isn’t going to help us.

  ORMUND [sincerely]: Bitter! I’m not being bitter, my dear. Not in the least. [Takes a good drink.]

  JANET [getting a whiff perhaps as she passes behind him]: Loathsome stuff! I can’t think how you go on and on drinking it.

  ORMUND: There’s a good reason why the distilleries are working at full blast. They’re busy giving us Old Highland Blended Courage by the case. Faith and Hope at twelve-and-six a bottle. Love seven years in bond.

  JANET: And in another minute, Walter, you’ll be attacking me again.

  ORMUND: No, no, I’m not attacking you, I’m defending whisky. It’s dependable. It doesn’t change its mind, think it’s in love with you and then know better. It may have a little more fusel oil in it this year than last, but that’s all the difference. That’s why people all over the world now are steadily pickling themselves in it.

  JANET: If it made you silly-drunk, I don’t think I’d object.

  ORMUND: My dear Janet, you’d walk straight out on me.

  JANET: No. The trouble is, it only makes you gloomy.

  ORMUND: No, if I pour enough down into the darkness inside, they begin to floodlight things down there. Beautiful images begin to shine. Venuses rise from the sea of Scotch and soda, glorious smiling kind wenches, all looking rather alike – [Breaks off suddenly.] Rooms all right?

  JANET [grateful for this]: Yes. Queer little windows and a heavenly country smell.

  ORMUND: Any spotted china beasts?

  JANET: Yes. Dogs with long necks. They’ve blue spots in my room, red spots in yours.

  ORMUND: Good! I haven’t seen any of those beasts for years and I’m fond of ’em.

  JANET [hopefully]: I believe you’re going to like it here.

  ORMUND [with sudden change of mood]: No. [He finishes his drink.] I can’t help feeling it was a mistake coming here.

  JANET [mildly]: It was your idea.

  ORMUND: A lot of my ideas are bad. This is too small, too quiet. It throws us straight back on to ourselves –

  JANET: That’s a good thing.

  ORMUND: It’s a good thing when people are all right with one another. But when they’re trying to be easy and friendly and one of ’em has died on the other, as if he were last year’s worst hat, then if they’ve any sense they want to go and stay at some large damn silly place screaming with jazz bands where you can’t possibly think. Here you can’t help thinking. I’ve started already….

  [FARRANT enters, and stops short, and he and JANET look at one another. Then ORMUND looks too, and the clock joins in with its tick and chime, as if it had been expecting this. An odd tenseness for a moment.]

  FARRANT [with a certain effort]: We’d better introduce ourselves. My name’s Farrant.

  ORMUND [his bewilderment over]: That’s it, of course. You’re Oliver Farrant, Head of Lamberton. I’m Walter Ormund. My wife.

  FARRANT: I didn’t expect to meet one of the school governors here.

  ORMUND [not importantly]: I’ve been too busy to go and see the school yet, but I was one of the governors who put you in there. Thought we ought to have a young man.

  FARRANT [smiling]: You were quite right.

  ORMUND: But what are you doing here. Term time, isn’t it?

  FARRANT: I was told to knock off and have a rest.

  ORMUND: Overworking?

  FARRANT: That’s what they said. I feel rather a fraud – I’m walking miles and miles every day, and eating like a horse –

  ORMUND [looking hard at him]: Look a bit nervous, though.

  JANET: How did you find your way up here?

  FARRANT: Mrs Pratt – that’s the landlord’s daughter – a widow – has a boy, Charlie, who’s at Lamberton. He told me about it.

  JANET: Mrs Pratt was telling me all about her boy. Is he clever?

  FARRANT [not at his best]: Yes, he’s got brains. He’s the kind of boy who makes me feel glad I’m a schoolmaster. Ought to be fairly certain of an Oxford scholarship later on. We’ve a good many boys of his kind.

  JANET: Do you mean – clever ones or from this sort of home?

  FARRANT [rather deliberately]: I mean – boys with brains from this class. A lot of them have brains, y’know.

  JANET [who does not like his manner]: Yes, it never occurred to me that they wouldn’t have.

  FARRANT: And it’s part of our policy at Lamberton to encourage them.

  ORMUND [dryly]: Yes, it was part of our policy when we built the school.

  FARRANT: Sorry, I was forgetting.

  ORMUND: That’s all right. Have a drink?

  FARRANT: No, thanks. Too soon after supper.

  ORMUND: There’s a bar in there, isn’t there?

  FARRANT: Yes. But the talk’s not very amusing.

  ORMUND [almost giving him up as a bad job]: Anybody else staying here?

  FARRANT: Yes, a Doctor Görtler.

  ORMUND: German?

  FARRANT: Yes, professor of mathematics taking refuge over here. Judging by his talk at supper, he seems to have wandered a long way from mathematics now. I don’t quite make him out.

  JANET: Why?

  FARRANT: Oh – he seems to be turning mystical. Probably seen too much trouble. The German intellect doesn’t always stand the strain. I’ll be down later, if you want to talk about the school. [Nods and goes up to his room, closing door behind him.]

  [ORMUND and JANET look at one another.]

  ORMUND [quietly]: Without having seen him, purely on his record – and against considerable opposition, I had that young man appointed Head of Lamberton.

  JANET [rather grimly]: My dear, I know you did.

  ORMUND: Well?

  JANET [with irony]: Oh – very nice, friendly, modest sort of young man – not the least little bit conceited and dogmatic – very charming – humph!

  [She laughs.]

  ORMUND: Yes, most extraordinary thing. Thought I’d take to him. Took to him at once on paper. And he looks all right. Ought in fact to be a very attractive fellow. But – well – there you are –

  [He has risen now and turns to the door leading to the dining-room and bar. This brings him face to face with DR GÖRTLER, who has just entered. DR GÖRTLER looks curiously at the ORMUNDS, especially at JANET, and is then ceremonious.]

  DR GÖRTLER [with a little bow]: Doctor Görtler. Mr and Mrs Ormund?

  ORMUND: Yes, good evening.

  JANET: Good evening.

  DR GÖRTLER: And a very beautiful evening.

  JANET: Yes, hasn’t it been?

  ORMUND: Would you like to join me in a drink?

  DR GÖRTLER: No, thank you.

  ORMUND: Janet?

  JANET: No, thank you, Walter.

  ORMUND [gravely]: Then – I think – I shall try the bar. [As JANET makes a murmur of protest.] No, no. Shan’t be long. [He goes out.

  [DR GÖRTLER settles down and looks in a friendly but very deliberate fashion at JANET, who smiles in return.]

  JANET: Have you been up here before, Dr Görtler?

  DR GÖRTLER [watching her]: No. Have you?

  JANET [frowning a little]: No – I haven’t – really.

  DR GÖRTLER: You do not seem very certain.

  JANET [slowly]: I’ve been wondering –

  DR GÖRTLER [as she hesitates]: Yes?

  JANET: I was only wondering if I could have been here when I was a very small child. [She breaks off, and looks at him, and then away from him.]

  [Pause.]

  DR G�
�RTLER: Mrs Ormund, I am a student – a very old one now. Sometimes we students do not seem to have very good manners. I do not wish you to think I am – inquisitive, impertinent.

  JANET [with slight smile]: It didn’t occur to me that you were – or might be.

  DR GÖRTLER: Lately I have been enlarging my studies – to include the human mind. So I go about asking questions.

  JANET: If this means you want to ask me some questions, you can. But I don’t think you’d find me much use. I’ve always thought the psycho-analysts monstrously exaggerated everything. I can’t believe that all the little fears and fancies one has are of any real interest or value.

  DR GÖRTLER: Even a few years ago, I would have agreed with you. But now I see that we do not understand ourselves, the nature of our lives. What seems to happen continually just outside the edge of our attention – the little fears and fancies, as you call them – may be all-important because they belong to a profounder reality, like the vague sounds of the city outside that we hear sometimes inside a theatre.

  JANET: Oh! [She stares at him, almost terrified.]

  DR GÖRTLER: What is it?

  JANET [hesitantly and with wonder]: You see … suddenly I felt … I could have sworn … you’d said all that to me before…. You and I – sitting, talking, like this … and then you said ‘because they belong … to a profounder reality … like the sounds of the city … we hear sometimes inside a theatre….’ [Dismisses the mood, then hastily] I’m so sorry. I must be tired.

  [A pause.]

  DR GÖRTLER: Mrs Ormund, what made you come here?

  JANET: Oh – pure chance. We wanted to spend this week-end somewhere in the country. A man at the hotel we dined at – tonight – not an hour ago – suggested this place. I’d never heard of it before.

  DR GÖRTLER: It was all quite dull, ordinary?

  JANET: Yes … until we were driving from Marlingset up here….

  DR GÖRTLER: Yes?

  JANET: I find this – rather difficult – [She breaks off, and then, with urgency] Quite suddenly, I began to feel excited…. About nothing, it seemed…. My heart was beating terribly…. We stopped once … only a moment, to make sure about the way…. At the roadside there were some white harebells … just some white harebells…. Of course they looked lovely there … white and fragile and perfect, at the edge of the great dark moor…. It must have been – just that … anything else – is silly.

  DR GÖRTLER [slowly]: There has not been in your life so far a moment of crisis that you associate with these flowers?

  JANET [slowly, and staring at him]: No. But that’s exactly the feeling I had about them.

  DR GÖRTLER [prompting her]: And then – you arrived here?

  JANET [rather slowly]: Yes.

  [A distinct pause, during which DR GÖRTLER rises and goes nearer to her.]

  DR GÖRTLER: You have met Mr Farrant?

  JANET: Yes. But only for a few minutes.

  DR GÖRTLER: He is very young for such a responsible post.

  JANET: Yes.

  DR GÖRTLER: But that does not matter, of course. He is fortunate, but he deserves to be. Very clever – and very charming, very good-hearted too, I think – [Looks at her questioningly.]

  JANET [rather stiffly]: I’m sure he must be, Dr Görtler. [As he stares at her speculatively.] Why do you stare at me like that?

  DR GÖRTLER: I beg your pardon. I was thinking. [Pause.] Mr Ormund – does he feel any of these things tonight?

  JANET [with a slight smile]: I think you’d better ask him that yourself.

  DR GÖRTLER: Yes, I will.

  JANET [rather hastily, with a resumption of more social manner]: You may find him – a little difficult. I mean – you mustn’t mind if he seems rather brusque – odd.

  DR GÖRTLER: Why should I? I am – brusque and odd – myself.

  JANET [hastily]: He’s really very kind and considerate, when you know him, but he’s got the most tremendous responsibilities. I thought he was going to have a rest this week-end but he’s brought a lot of work with him. He works far too hard.

  DR GÖRTLER [calmly]: Yes, I think he is an unhappy man.

  JANET [shocked, reproachful]: Dr Görtler – ! [Then dropping social manner] Why do you say that?

  DR GÖRTLER: I have seen enough unhappiness now to recognize it.

  [FARRANT enters from his room, with a rather large book under his arm. He and JANET take a quick look at one another. DR GÖRTLER watches them both. Then FARRANT crosses to the bureau to sit down with his book. You feel the silence. JANET obviously does not like it. DR GÖRTLER is interested, watchful.]

  JANET [who must break this horrible silence]: What are your special subjects, Mr Farrant?

  FARRANT [rather too carefully keeping his place open in book]: History and economics.

  JANET [doing her best]: I don’t care about economics. It never seems to me to be true. But I wish I knew more history – real history, not the dreary stuff they still taught us when I was at school. I’m always meaning to learn more about it.

  FARRANT [with a suggestion of the schoolmaster]: Well, it’s going on all round you, y’know. It’s not something that’s dead and done with. We’re making it all the time.

  JANET: I don’t feel I’m making very much.

  FARRANT: No, but once you realize you’re in history, helping to make it, you see the whole thing differently. That’s how we try to teach it now. I show them how completely interdependent we are.

  DR GÖRTLER [who has been missing nothing]: Yes, we are like threads in a pattern.

  FARRANT: There’s a pretty example of mutual dependence – quite a nice little pattern – here in this pub. Sam and Mrs Pratt are devoted to this boy of hers, Charlie –

  DR GÖRTLER: He is at your school. So they depend upon you.

  FARRANT: Yes. But the school partly depends on the Ormunds, and especially on your husband, Mrs Ormund –

  [He is interrupted by the entrance of SALLY, who is followed after a moment by ORMUND.]

  SALLY: Excuse me, Mrs Ormund. But I just wanted to tell you that we have breakfast at half-past eight, if that’s not too early.

  JANET: No, I’d like it then, Mrs Pratt.

  SALLY: And is that all right for you, Dr Görtler?

  DR GÖRTLER: Yes, thank you.

  SALLY: And would you like a cup of tea earlier on, Mrs Ormund?

  JANET: Not tomorrow morning, thank you. What about you, Walter?

  SALLY: Oh – I’m sorry.

  ORMUND [coming forward]: That’s all right. And no tea. And no breakfast either. Just a pot of strong coffee for me – about half past nine.

  SALLY: All right, Mr Ormund.

  FARRANT [rather peremptorily]: I’ll be out all day again tomorrow, so can I have some sandwiches in the morning, please?

  SALLY: Yes, Mr Farrant.

  ORMUND [to FARRANT]: Going striding over the moors all day?

  FARRANT: I’ll be out all day, I don’t know about striding.

  ORMUND [to JANET]: That’s what you want, isn’t it? Better go along with him.

  JANET [dismayed]: But what are you going to do?

  ORMUND: Oh – I’ll do a bit of work – and then slack round. You’d better join up with Farrant here. [To FARRANT] She can walk, you know.

  FARRANT [plainly without enthusiasm]: Well – it might be rather rough going – but of course – if you’d like to come along –

  JANET [furious with both men, shortly]: No, thank you. I may want some sandwiches, Mrs Pratt. I’ll let you know in the morning.

  [ORMUND crosses to outside door and stands looking out.]

  SALLY: Yes, Mrs Ormund. I’ve a long day tomorrow – Whit Saturday – an’ folks wanting lunches and teas – so I thought I’d get to bed in good time tonight.

  JANET: Yes, of course.

  SALLY [somewhat embarrassed]: We’re very proud to have you and Mr Ormund here. Nearly all the money father and I have between us – that we saved to help our Charlie later on – is in Orm
unds Limited.

  JANET: Do you hear that, Walter? You’re among shareholders, so be careful.

  ORMUND [half-turning, with mock groan]: I know, I know.

  DR GÖRTLER: There, you see, is more dependence.

  SALLY [distrusting this]: What’s that?

  JANET: It sounds like an insult, but it isn’t. We’ve been discovering how much we depend on one another. You’re in it because your boy’s at Mr Farrant’s school.

  SALLY: And very lucky he is to be there too – with Mr Farrant looking after him.

  JANET: And now you say you’ve money in Ormunds Limited.

  FARRANT: And the school partly depends on Ormunds too. Which brings me in.

  JANET: And I’m certainly one of the dependents. Walter, you’re the only really great one, the giant Atlas himself. We all depend upon you, but you don’t depend upon anybody.

  DR GÖRTLER [quietly, but with startling effect]: Nein! [They all stare at him.] Mr Ormund depends very much upon somebody. [To JANET] He depends upon you – his wife.

  ORMUND [quietly, with cold anger]: That’s not the kind of remark we appreciate from a stranger in this country, my dear sir.

  JANET: Walter!

  DR GÖRTLER [rising]: I am sorry. I am – as you say – a stranger – in a foreign country.

  JANET: It’s all right, Dr Görtler.

  DR GÖRTLER [as he moves towards door, to his room]: Good night.

  ORMUND [crossing to him]: No, doctor. I shouldn’t have spoken like that. Now don’t be offended.

  DR GÖRTLER: I am not offended. Only tired. So please – no apologies. Good night.

  [The others say good night and watch him go out, closing the door behind him.]

  SALLY [dropping voice, dubiously]: I hope it’s going to be all right.

  JANET: Why, Mrs Pratt, what’s wrong?

  SALLY: I mean – him being here.

  ORMUND: Yes, of course. Why not?

  SALLY: Well, Mr Ormund – only that he seems to be upsetting you.

  FARRANT [sharply]: Now, Mrs Pratt! Just because he’s a foreigner.

  SALLY: No, it isn’t that, Mr Farrant. Though I’ll admit I’m not used to foreigners. But what’s he doing here?