An Inspector Calls and Other Plays Page 14

  ORMUND: God forbid!

  SAM: Nay, don’t say that, Mr Ormund, ’cos I’m all for this arrangement. He says I’m one o’ them that’ll go on and on wi’ t’same life an’ nivver change. When I die, I’m born all over again, down at Marlingset, same house, same parents, go to t’same school an’ have t’same fights wi’ t’other lads, just t’same as before.

  ORMUND: But you wouldn’t like that, Sam, would you?

  SAM: I ask for naught better. It’s champion. I wor telling him about day I wor wed. We wor wed early an’ then I took her down to Leeds – eh, an’ it wor a grand day an’ all – Wharfedale shining an’ smiling all t’way down – an’ Yorkshire wor playing Surrey at Headingley, an’so o’ course we went – an’ Brown an’ Tunnicliffe an’ F. S. Jackson knocked them Surrey bowlers silly – an’ then we went back to big high tea at Queen’s Hotel. Eh, what a day!

  ORMUND: Yes, that would be worth having again.

  SAM: Well, I says to him, ‘Nah is that day coming round again?’ An’ he says, ‘Yes, it’s on its way. Same bright morning,’he says, ‘same blushing girl,’ he says, ‘same sun on t’same fields – everything.’ That’ll do me, I says.

  ORMUND [half amused, half serious]: Lucky for you, Sam. But does he seriously think we all just go on and on with the same life?

  SAM: Ay, I think so. That’s what he told me.

  [DR GÖRTLER enters. They turn and see him.]

  SAM: Doctor, didn’t you tell me we all went on wi’ t’same life round an’ round an’ round?

  DR GÖRTLER: I said you might live the same life over and over again. But not all.

  SAM: Well, what happens to t’others then, Doctor?

  DR GÖRTLER: Some people, steadily developing, will exhaust the possibilities of their circles of time and will finally swing out of them into new existences. Others – the criminals, madmen, suicides – live their lives in ever darkening circles of their time. Fatality begins to haunt them. More and more of their lives are passed in the shadow of death. They gradually sink –

  ORMUND [passionately]: For Christ’s sake – stop it, can’t you! [He goes towards DR GÖRTLER as if to strike him, then controls himself and swings away, muttering] I don’t want to hear any more of that stuff tonight. It’s getting on my nerves. [He goes out to the bar.]

  [SAM looks reproachfully at DR GÖRTLER.]

  SAM: You’ve gone and put your foot in it again, Doctor.

  DR GÖRTLER [staring after ORMUND thoughtfully]: Yes. Perhaps I was wrong to come here. Or wrong to speak at all of these things.

  [Enter SALLY purposefully.]

  SALLY [decisively]: Just a minute, Father.

  SAM [lowering his voice]: Now, steady on, Sally.

  SALLY [getting rid of him]: All right, all right.

  [SAM goes. SALLY and DR GÖRTLER look at one another.]

  DR GÖRTLER: Yes?

  SALLY: Dr Görtler, there’s been a misunderstanding about your room. I thought you were just staying last night and tonight and – well – I promised somebody that room for tomorrow and Monday – and it’s somebody who’s stayed here many a time – so – you see –

  DR GÖRTLER: You mean, that you want me to go?

  SALLY: I didn’t say so. I said we wanted that room.

  DR GÖRTLER: Yes, but you have nobody coming for it tomorrow.

  SALLY [sturdily]: No, but we soon can have. I said that because I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.

  DR GÖRTLER: You have already hurt my feelings. But tell me the real reason why you wish me to leave.

  SALLY [with force]: Well, if you want to know, it’s because I feel there’s something wrong here. I don’t know what it is, but I can feel it all the time. And so can other people.

  DR GÖRTLER: Perhaps there is something wrong here.

  SALLY: Well, there wasn’t before you came. And you arrived in a queer sort of way – asking who was staying here and all that. And you’ve got a way of talking and looking at folk that puts ’em on edge. You may not mean it, and then again you may. But I do know we’d all be a deal more comfortable if you were gone. And we think a lot o’ Mr Farrant and Mr and Mrs Ormund are folk o’ some standing –

  DR GÖRTLER [with sad irony]: And I am a stranger, a foreigner.

  SALLY: Well, if you want to put it like that, you can do. But that’s how it is. We don’t expect you to go tonight, y’know.

  DR GÖRTLER [with sudden passion]: I will go when I please. You want to be rid of me – that is enough. I will pay you now.

  SALLY: Up to tomorrow morning it’ll be just two days. We’ll call it a pound.

  [He gives her a pound note and, turning away, goes to the door and opening it wide stands looking out.]

  SALLY [uncomfortably]: I’m sorry – but we only want to do what’s right for everybody –

  DR GÖRTLER [half turning, curtly]: I am sorry too – for you.

  SALLY [shortly]: You needn’t be sorry for me. [She goes out.]

  [DR GÖRTLER looks out of the door a moment longer, then leaving it wide open, crosses and goes up to his room through the staircase door. The clock chimes and strikes ten. During the final strokes, ORMUND enters followed by SAM, leaving door open behind them.]

  ORMUND: He’s not here.

  SAM [indicating the open door]: Must ha’ gone out. Sally, Sally!

  [SALLY appears looking a trifle upset.]

  Has Dr Görtler gone out, ’cos Mr Ormund wants him?

  ORMUND: I want to apologize to him.

  SALLY [sulkily]: He must have gone out. He’s off in the morning.

  ORMUND: Going? What for?

  SALLY [defiantly]: Because I asked him to go.

  SAM: Nay, Sally, you didn’t!

  SALLY: Well, you wouldn’t. You shuffled out of it. [She turns to go.]

  ORMUND [with authority]: Just a minute, Mrs Pratt. Did you really ask Dr Görtler to leave this inn?

  SALLY [defiantly]: I did. And I’m not sorry. He’s made everybody feel uncomfortable. I heard you complaining and shouting at him yourself, Mr Ormund.

  ORMUND: Yes, God help me!

  SALLY: So I think I did right.

  ORMUND: No, you did wrong.

  SALLY: Why did I?

  ORMUND: Because he’s a stranger, a foreigner, who’s had to leave his own country. Even if he says things we don’t understand, even if he makes us feel uncomfortable at times, we ought to be courteous. God knows I haven’t been. But I was hoping you were being considerate to him. My fault probably. I could kick myself.

  SAM: Why, Mr Ormund, I can’t see it matters much.

  ORMUND: It does, Sam, it does. All over this rotten world now, they’re slamming doors in the faces of good men. But we’ve still a door or two open here. We can’t bang one of them in the face of this man, who’s done none of us any harm. [Glances at door.] He can’t have gone far. I’m going to tell him I’m sorry and ashamed. [He goes out hastily, the door closing behind him.]

  [SAM looks after him dubiously, then at SALLY.]

  SAM: You shouldn’t ha’ done it, Sally.

  SALLY: Why not? We’ve got our living to earn – and work hard enough to earn it – and we’re the best judge of our own business. It’s all right, Mr Ormund talking so grand now. And how much whisky has he had?

  SAM: I know. But he’s far from being nasty-drunk, so I can’t interfere. Only one as could is his wife, and it beats me she doesn’t.

  SALLY [lowering her voice]: Happen she’s given him up as a bad job.

  [She does not say any more because JANET enters. There is a slight awkward pause.]

  Was your supper all right, Mrs Ormund?

  JANET [who has a strained look]: Yes, thank you.

  SALLY [motioning SAM out]: You won’t be wanting anything else tonight?

  JANET: No, thank you.

  SAM [rather awkwardly]: Mr Ormund’s just gone out.

  [JANET nods and sits down. As SALLY and SAM are going, FARRANT appears.]

  SALLY: You won’t be wanting a
nything else, will you, Mr Farrant?

  FARRANT: No, thank you.

  SALLY: What about tomorrow? Will you be going out all day again?

  FARRANT [hastily]: I don’t know yet. I haven’t made any plans.

  [They all say ‘Good night’ as SALLY and SAM go out. JANET and FARRANT are left silent, not looking at one another. The sense of strain is definitely felt. At last JANET can endure it no longer.]

  JANET: Mr Farrant.

  FARRANT [rather startled]: Yes?

  JANET: This afternoon you walked just behind me for several hours. We’ve just sat through the whole of supper without exchanging a word. I’m sorry, but I can’t stand any more of it. If you’re going to sit in here, then I’ll either go out or up to my room.

  FARRANT [rising]: Please don’t trouble. I’ll go.

  JANET [watching him, with a touch of irony]: Thank you.

  [As he stands awkwardly, looking doubtfully at her, and not moving.]

  Yes?

  FARRANT [jerkily]: Would you mind – telling me – how long you’re staying up here?

  JANET: I really don’t see why I should. [Pause.] Why do you ask?

  FARRANT: Because if you’re not leaving, then I must leave.

  JANET [rising]: I didn’t realize you disliked me as much as that.

  FARRANT: I don’t dislike you. It isn’t that. I’d better clear out in the morning.

  JANET: But you’ve no right to talk as if I’m driving you out.

  FARRANT: No, I don’t mean that, Mrs Ormund.

  JANET [moving a step or two nearer]: I’m not trying to be difficult. It’s simply that I find these long silences intolerable.

  FARRANT [a step nearer to her]: I know they are. I feel just the same. And I do assure you – it’s quite unusual for me. I’m often accused of talking too much. But – you see – last night I never slept at all –

  JANET: Neither did I, for that matter. But that doesn’t excuse us –

  FARRANT: No, no, I know. But then, you see, all today when I was out, of course I felt fagged. You must have done too.

  JANET: I did. And when I came back, I felt absolutely worn out. I couldn’t possibly make any effort at supper. Still, I think you might have done –

  FARRANT: I tried, y’know, tried all the time. I kept – you know how one does – kept forming words –

  JANET [a step forward]: Yes, I did that too. But couldn’t bring them out.

  FARRANT: Exactly. And then when I came in here, the silence had gone on so long, it seemed – y’know – absolutely indestructible –

  JANET: It was nearly. I had to take a hammer to it.

  FARRANT [moving a step nearer]: I’m glad you did, because I wanted to explain. You must think me a fool –

  JANET [quicker than before]: No, of course I felt you disliked me, but then with not sleeping last night and being so tired today, you see –

  FARRANT [eagerly, very quickly]: Yes, well, probably I’m imagining I’m fitter than I am, y’know –

  JANET [she is quite close to him now]: You look rather nervously tired –

  FARRANT [looking at her]: Perhaps we’re both – y’know – not quite – our usual selves.

  JANET: No.

  [Involuntarily she steps into his arms and he holds her closely to him. The clock chimes. A tremendous inevitability rather than a sudden gust of passion is felt here. They remain in this embrace for a few moments. They only draw their faces away to speak.]

  FARRANT [dazed]: I didn’t know…. I didn’t know.

  [After a pause]

  JANET [whispering]: What shall we do?

  [He now does definitely hold her close and they kiss. They are quite ecstatic. Then before they have time to separate, ORMUND has entered, clearly taking in the situation. They stand a little apart, dumb.]

  ORMUND [from just inside the door]: There may be a storm. And it’s nearly Whitsunday – the Feast of Pentecost – the Day of the Spirit, they used to call it. And – curiously enough – they didn’t mean motor spirit – quick-starting, anti-knock petrol. They didn’t know about that. They didn’t know anything. We know it all. Farrant knows it all and is passing on our knowledge to our lucky boys –

  [He breaks off, and comes forward, looking at the other two, who are still dumb.]

  And now what?

  [They are silent.]

  Come on then – damn you! – talk, talk, let’s hear all about it.

  [They are silent.]

  I suppose you arranged to meet here. No? Then if you’ve got as far as this in twenty-four hours, I ought to congratulate you. It’s wonderful how everything’s being speeded up.

  [Another pause; he looks at FARRANT.]

  Come on, Farrant. Good God, aren’t you man enough to stand up for what you’re doing?

  FARRANT: Ormund – I wish I could explain –

  ORMUND: I can do that.

  JANET: No, Walter, please. We’ve got to try and understand what’s happening –

  ORMUND [bitterly]: No difficulty about that. In one day, while the pair of you were pretending to dislike each other, you’ve suddenly decided you’re in love – or in want of amusement – and couldn’t even wait –

  JANET [with force]: No, Walter, can’t you see it’s not like that?

  ORMUND: How can I see what it’s like?

  FARRANT: Ormund, it’s – simply – happened, that’s all. Beyond that, we can’t explain.

  [ORMUND goes away from them, then turns in a quieter mood.]

  ORMUND: All right, all right. You’re neither of you in any fit state to talk, and I know I’m in no fit state to listen. You’ve fallen in love. You don’t know why. You can’t help it. That it?

  FARRANT: Yes.

  JANET: Can’t you see we’re quite bewildered and helpless? [Pauses, then with more urgency] You remember what I felt last night when we arrived here, and I didn’t want to stay.

  ORMUND: You think you felt then that – this – was about to begin?

  JANET: Yes.

  ORMUND: But you don’t know how it’s going to end. [Looking at both of them] How does it end? We’d better ask Dr Görtler.

  JANET [urgently]: Why do you say that?

  FARRANT [quickly]: He’s not serious.

  ORMUND: I’m in a state of mind when I’ve stopped considering whether I’m serious or not. Ask Görtler. Ask the devil.

  FARRANT: But Görtler doesn’t come into this at all.

  ORMUND: Don’t be too sure, Farrant.

  JANET [as if making a tremendous discovery]: He knew it had happened before.

  FARRANT [quickly]: He couldn’t have done.

  JANET: He came to find us here.

  ORMUND [almost in a whisper]: My God! – I’d hate to think that.

  JANET: Why, what do you mean?

  ORMUND: I’ve had one grim session with him tonight. What does Görtler know?

  FARRANT [with quick contempt]: Nothing about this.

  JANET [suddenly sinking into chair, exhausted, then speaking slowly]: I believe he knows everything about us all.

  [There is a pause.]

  ORMUND [harshly]: Well, what do we do now?

  JANET [in a whisper]: I’m frightened.

  [As they look at one another in silence – DR GÖRTLER crosses the stage from the staircase door to the door, to the open air, in a curiously detached, almost mechanical fashion, carrying his bag. He does not look at them, but they watch him in silence, staring in fascination and amazement at him. They only speak when he is nearing the door.]

  JANET [in a terribly alarmed tone]: Dr Görtler!

  ORMUND [in alarm and despair]: Görtler!

  [But he ignores them and walks straight out of door, banging it behind him, and they remain motionless, staring after him, and then slowly turning their eyes to one another, while the curtain rapidly descends.]

  END OF ACT TWO

  Act Three

  Sunday night. The room is empty. Late evening light. Both doors are closed. The clock chimes. After a momen
t, SALLY comes in and goes to telephone.

  SALLY: No! I was sure I heard it. [Over her shoulder to SAM, who is following her] Come in, Father, there’s nobody here. Surely they can’t be much longer getting that call through. It’s past his bedtime now.

  SAM: Well, if t’lad’s in bed, he’s all right.

  SALLY [sharply, she is worried]: Unless he’s poorly. And how do I know he’s safe in bed?

  SAM: Why shouldn’t he be?

  SALLY: I’ve told you before, Father – I don’t know. I expect I’m making a fool of myself. But I can’t help it.

  SAM: All right, lass, I’m not blaming you.

  SALLY: I’m sorry, Father, I didn’t mean to be short with you. And if it were anybody else but our Charlie, I’d laugh at myself for getting into such a state.

  [Telephone rings sharply. SALLY hastens to answer.]

  Yes, yes…. Well, this is Mrs Pratt speaking…. [Eagerly] Oh is he? Thank you very much, though I didn’t mean to get poor lad out o’ bed…. [With marked change of tone] Oh, Charlie, this is your mother…. Are you all right, lad? … [With great relief] Well, I’m glad to hear it. I’ve been right worried about you…. Nay, I don’t know…. I must be doting…. Yes, it’s been nice here, except for a bit of a storm late last night…. That’s good…. How many runs did you make? … Never mind, better luck next time…. Yes, well – look after yourself, Charlie…. God bless you, lad! [She puts down the telephone and gives a great sigh.] He’s all right.

  SAM: I didn’t expect aught else. How many runs did he make?

  SALLY [half laughing]: You’re as bad as he is. Three.

  SAM: He will try and hit across, instead o’ coming forward – left foot. I’ve told him.

  SALLY: I’ve been worrying and worrying about that lad all day. Well, that’s one load off my mind.

  SAM: One load? How many more have you?

  SALLY: Well, I’ve this.

  [She produces a rather worn, fairly large notebook, bound in dark leather. SAM looks at it in astonishment.]

  SAM: Whose is it?

  SALLY: That Doctor Görtler’s. I found it in his room this morning. It had slipped down inside the arm-chair.

  SAM: Well, you’ll have to send it to him.

  SALLY: How can I when he didn’t leave his address? And another thing. I feel bad about sending him away like that.

  SAM: I told you.