An Inspector Calls and Other Plays (Penguin Modern Classics)

Product Information

Gerald : Then it'll be all right. The governor prides himself on being a good judge of port . I don’t pretend to know much about it . Sheila: (with sharp sarcasm) of course not. You were the wonderful fairy prince. You must have adored it, gerald. Inspector: Yes. I think she went away – to be alone, to be quiet, to remember all that had happened between you. Birling: Oh – that's it, is it? Well, we've several hundred young women there, y'know, and they keep changing.

Birling: Thanks. (confidentially.) by the way, there's something I’d like to mention – in strict confidence – while we're by ourselves. I have an idea that your mother – lady croft – while she doesn't object to my girl – feels you might have done better for yourself socially - Inspector: (sternly) That's what I asked myself tonight when I was looking at that dead girl. And then I said to myself: 'well, we'll try to understand why it had to happen?' and that's why I'm here, and why I’m, not going until I know all that happened. Eva Smith lost her job with Birling and company because the strike failed and they were determined not to have another one. At last she found another job – under what name I don't know – in a big shop, and had to leave there because you were annoyed with yourself and passed the annoyance on to her. Now she had to try something else. So first she changed her name to Daisy Renton- she looks at him almost in triumph. He looks crushed. The doors slowly opens and the Inspector appears, looking steadily and searchingly at them.//Birling: Perhaps I ought to warn you that he's an old friend of mine, and that I see him fairly frequently. We play golf together sometimes up at the west brumley. Was it after she left milwards? When she changed her name, as he said, and began to lead a different sort of life? Were you seeing her last spring and summer, during that time you hardly came near me and said you were so busy? Were you? Inspector: (steadily) That's more or less what I was thinking earlier tonight when I was in the infirmary looking at what was left of Eva Smith. A nice little promising life there, I thought, and a nasty mess somebody's made of it. Sheila: (rather distressed) Sorry! It's just that I can't help thinking about this girl – destroying herself so horribly – and I’ve been so happy tonight. Oh I wish you hadn't told me. What was she like? Quite young?

Gerald: we went along to the county hotel , which I knew would be quiet at that time of night, and we had a drink or two and talked .Sheila:(urgently, cutting in) mother, don't – please don't. For your own sake, as well as ours, you mustn't--

Sheila: nothing would induce me. I want to understand exactly what happens when a man says he's so busy at the works that he can hardly ever find time to come and see the girl he's supposed to be in love with. I wouldn't miss it for worlds--Birling: (raising his glass) So here's wishing the pair of you – the very best that life can bring. Gerald and Sheila .