The curtain rises with the family standing looking dumfoundedly at Mr Birling. They are all beginning to get panicky. Mr Birling: “If a real inspector is coming then we need to be able to get our stories straight, we don’t want to tell this inspector the amount that we told the last one.” Everyone looks at Eric and Sheila. Mrs Birling: “I really think that if any of us let on then we will all be in really deep trouble.” Gerald: “Hold on! How do we know that it is the same girl that has died? The other inspector could really have been bluffing and made up the whole lot. It could be a girl that nobody here has ever heard of.”
Mr Birling: “He’s right you know. But still, we had better get good alibis just in case it is the same girl.” Eric: “But how did he know that this was going to happen? It can’t just be a coincidence.” Eric walks over to the drinks and pours himself a small whisky. Nobody seems to notice except Sheila, who is horrified. “I mean, he must have known that this was going to happen. I can’t just accept that it was a coincidence.” Mr Birling: “Anyway, that doesn’t matter now. I doubt that he will pass on the information that he got out of us to anybody else. I think that he just came here to scare us.”
Sheila: “Who cares if he passes on the information to anybody else? It does matter what we did because I think that we have driven a perfectly innocent girl to suicide. Of course it matters. Can’t you see that?” There is a long pause. “Well, I don’t care what any of you say about this, I’m going to tell him the truth.” Mr Birling: “Oh no you’re not! You’re going to…” Eric: “Don’t you see that she’s right father. We have to tell him what happened and what we have all done. If Sheila doesn’t, then I will. I can’t live with a thing like that on my conscience.”
Mr Birling: “Shut up both of you! The only reason that I don’t throw you both out into the streets is that I don’t want any of this to become public. It would create a scandal. If there is a scandal then both Mr Croft and I will lose our reputations as honourable men. Nobody will buy from us any more and we will therefore go bankrupt. It will spoil all my chances of getting a knighthood. Sheila: “Who cares about your silly knighthood. Between us we have driven this girl to suicide.” Gerald: “How do you know that? It could be a totally different girl.”
Mr Birling: “I hadn’t finished! Eric, I want my �50 back. When you’ve angrily paid that back then I think that I will throw you out. It’s about time you learnt a lesson. Don’t forget that it was you who got us into this mess in the first place.” Eric: “No it wasn’t. We all did our bit to kill this girl. We have to tell the truth.” Mr Birling: “If we do, then we’ll become bankrupt and you’ll have to live on the streets anyway.” Gerald: “He’s right. If any of this gets out then both your father and I will be ruined. You wouldn’t want that would you Sheila?”
Sheila: “I don’t care about any of that any more.” Sheila, who is now in a rage, storms out of the room. Eric walks over to the drinks and is about to pour one when he stops and realises what he is doing. He looks at everybody in the room and walks out after Sheila. The others exchange worried glances. Mr Birling: “Well, we’re well rid of them. At least they can’t tell the Inspector what we’ve done.” They hear a door slam. Mrs Birling: “That was the front door. I hope they haven’t run off.”
Gerald: ” They’ll be alright. Eric can look after Sheila – she needs a bit of fresh air. She’s been cooped up in here all evening. I hope that this will give her a bit of time to rethink my proposal. She was becoming a bit light-headed.” Mr Birling: “Yes, you’re right. We can worry about those two later. At the moment we have much more important things to think about, like what we’re going to tell the Inspector.” Mrs Birling: “I think that we should just deny all knowledge of this girl. I doubt that he’ll be able to pin us down. If he does know as much as the last one did, we’ll just have to bluff it out on the spot.” Mr Birling: “You’re right. We’ll just completely deny that we ever knew this girl.”
