diff --git a/frequency.py b/frequency.py index acaa449..7a2b2be 100644 --- a/frequency.py +++ b/frequency.py @@ -3,13 +3,36 @@ import string + + + def get_word_list(file_name): """ Reads the specified project Gutenberg book. Header comments, punctuation, and whitespace are stripped away. The function returns a list of the words used in the book as a list. All words are converted to lower case. """ - pass + f = open(file_name,'r') + #remove header + lines = f.readlines() + curr_line = 0 + while lines[curr_line].find('ACT I') == -1: + curr_line += 1 + lines = lines[curr_line:] + #remove footer + while lines[curr_line].find('*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PYGMALION ***') == -1: + curr_line += 1 + lines = lines[:curr_line-1] + #convert back to string + book=' '.join(lines) + for letter in string.punctuation: + book=book.replace(letter,'') + #May need to remove character names here + #convert to lowercase + book=book.lower() + #remove whitespace and split into word list + word_list=book.split() + return word_list def get_top_n_words(word_list, n): """ Takes a list of words as input and returns a list of the n most frequently @@ -21,4 +44,17 @@ def get_top_n_words(word_list, n): returns: a list of n most frequently occurring words ordered from most frequently to least frequentlyoccurring """ - pass \ No newline at end of file + for word in word_list: + if not word.isalnum() and word.islower(): + print word + raise TypeError('This word is either uppercase or non-alphanumeric') + histogram={} + for word in word_list: + curr_amount=histogram.get(word,1) + histogram[word]=curr_amount+1 + ordered_by_frequency = sorted(histogram, key=histogram.get, reverse=True) + return ordered_by_frequency[:n] + + +word_list=get_word_list('pg3825.txt') +print get_top_n_words(word_list, 100) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/pg3825.txt b/pg3825.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..84967ce --- /dev/null +++ b/pg3825.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4742 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net + + +Title: Pygmalion + +Author: George Bernard Shaw + +Posting Date: May 28, 2009 [EBook #3825] +Release Date: March, 2003 +First Posted: September 29, 2001 +Last Updated: January 19, 2005 + +Language: English + + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PYGMALION *** + + + + +Produced by Eve Sobol. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + +PYGMALION + +BERNARD SHAW + +1912 + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: In the printed version of this text, all +apostrophes for contractions such as "can't", "wouldn't" and "he'd" +were omitted, to read as "cant", "wouldnt", and "hed". This etext +edition restores the omitted apostrophes. + + + + + +PREFACE TO PYGMALION. + +A Professor of Phonetics. + +As will be seen later on, Pygmalion needs, not a preface, but a sequel, +which I have supplied in its due place. The English have no respect for +their language, and will not teach their children to speak it. They +spell it so abominably that no man can teach himself what it sounds +like. It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without +making some other Englishman hate or despise him. German and Spanish +are accessible to foreigners: English is not accessible even to +Englishmen. The reformer England needs today is an energetic phonetic +enthusiast: that is why I have made such a one the hero of a popular +play. There have been heroes of that kind crying in the wilderness for +many years past. When I became interested in the subject towards the +end of the eighteen-seventies, Melville Bell was dead; but Alexander J. +Ellis was still a living patriarch, with an impressive head always +covered by a velvet skull cap, for which he would apologize to public +meetings in a very courtly manner. He and Tito Pagliardini, another +phonetic veteran, were men whom it was impossible to dislike. Henry +Sweet, then a young man, lacked their sweetness of character: he was +about as conciliatory to conventional mortals as Ibsen or Samuel +Butler. His great ability as a phonetician (he was, I think, the best +of them all at his job) would have entitled him to high official +recognition, and perhaps enabled him to popularize his subject, but for +his Satanic contempt for all academic dignitaries and persons in +general who thought more of Greek than of phonetics. Once, in the days +when the Imperial Institute rose in South Kensington, and Joseph +Chamberlain was booming the Empire, I induced the editor of a leading +monthly review to commission an article from Sweet on the imperial +importance of his subject. When it arrived, it contained nothing but a +savagely derisive attack on a professor of language and literature +whose chair Sweet regarded as proper to a phonetic expert only. The +article, being libelous, had to be returned as impossible; and I had to +renounce my dream of dragging its author into the limelight. When I met +him afterwards, for the first time for many years, I found to my +astonishment that he, who had been a quite tolerably presentable young +man, had actually managed by sheer scorn to alter his personal +appearance until he had become a sort of walking repudiation of Oxford +and all its traditions. It must have been largely in his own despite +that he was squeezed into something called a Readership of phonetics +there. The future of phonetics rests probably with his pupils, who all +swore by him; but nothing could bring the man himself into any sort of +compliance with the university, to which he nevertheless clung by +divine right in an intensely Oxonian way. I daresay his papers, if he +has left any, include some satires that may be published without too +destructive results fifty years hence. He was, I believe, not in the +least an ill-natured man: very much the opposite, I should say; but he +would not suffer fools gladly. + +Those who knew him will recognize in my third act the allusion to the +patent Shorthand in which he used to write postcards, and which may be +acquired from a four and six-penny manual published by the Clarendon +Press. The postcards which Mrs. Higgins describes are such as I have +received from Sweet. I would decipher a sound which a cockney would +represent by zerr, and a Frenchman by seu, and then write demanding +with some heat what on earth it meant. Sweet, with boundless contempt +for my stupidity, would reply that it not only meant but obviously was +the word Result, as no other Word containing that sound, and capable of +making sense with the context, existed in any language spoken on earth. +That less expert mortals should require fuller indications was beyond +Sweet's patience. Therefore, though the whole point of his "Current +Shorthand" is that it can express every sound in the language +perfectly, vowels as well as consonants, and that your hand has to make +no stroke except the easy and current ones with which you write m, n, +and u, l, p, and q, scribbling them at whatever angle comes easiest to +you, his unfortunate determination to make this remarkable and quite +legible script serve also as a Shorthand reduced it in his own practice +to the most inscrutable of cryptograms. His true objective was the +provision of a full, accurate, legible script for our noble but +ill-dressed language; but he was led past that by his contempt for the +popular Pitman system of Shorthand, which he called the Pitfall system. +The triumph of Pitman was a triumph of business organization: there was +a weekly paper to persuade you to learn Pitman: there were cheap +textbooks and exercise books and transcripts of speeches for you to +copy, and schools where experienced teachers coached you up to the +necessary proficiency. Sweet could not organize his market in that +fashion. He might as well have been the Sybil who tore up the leaves of +prophecy that nobody would attend to. The four and six-penny manual, +mostly in his lithographed handwriting, that was never vulgarly +advertized, may perhaps some day be taken up by a syndicate and pushed +upon the public as The Times pushed the Encyclopaedia Britannica; but +until then it will certainly not prevail against Pitman. I have bought +three copies of it during my lifetime; and I am informed by the +publishers that its cloistered existence is still a steady and healthy +one. I actually learned the system two several times; and yet the +shorthand in which I am writing these lines is Pitman's. And the reason +is, that my secretary cannot transcribe Sweet, having been perforce +taught in the schools of Pitman. Therefore, Sweet railed at Pitman as +vainly as Thersites railed at Ajax: his raillery, however it may have +eased his soul, gave no popular vogue to Current Shorthand. Pygmalion +Higgins is not a portrait of Sweet, to whom the adventure of Eliza +Doolittle would have been impossible; still, as will be seen, there are +touches of Sweet in the play. With Higgins's physique and temperament +Sweet might have set the Thames on fire. As it was, he impressed +himself professionally on Europe to an extent that made his comparative +personal obscurity, and the failure of Oxford to do justice to his +eminence, a puzzle to foreign specialists in his subject. I do not +blame Oxford, because I think Oxford is quite right in demanding a +certain social amenity from its nurslings (heaven knows it is not +exorbitant in its requirements!); for although I well know how hard it +is for a man of genius with a seriously underrated subject to maintain +serene and kindly relations with the men who underrate it, and who keep +all the best places for less important subjects which they profess +without originality and sometimes without much capacity for them, +still, if he overwhelms them with wrath and disdain, he cannot expect +them to heap honors on him. + +Of the later generations of phoneticians I know little. Among them +towers the Poet Laureate, to whom perhaps Higgins may owe his Miltonic +sympathies, though here again I must disclaim all portraiture. But if +the play makes the public aware that there are such people as +phoneticians, and that they are among the most important people in +England at present, it will serve its turn. + +I wish to boast that Pygmalion has been an extremely successful play +all over Europe and North America as well as at home. It is so +intensely and deliberately didactic, and its subject is esteemed so +dry, that I delight in throwing it at the heads of the wiseacres who +repeat the parrot cry that art should never be didactic. It goes to +prove my contention that art should never be anything else. + +Finally, and for the encouragement of people troubled with accents that +cut them off from all high employment, I may add that the change +wrought by Professor Higgins in the flower girl is neither impossible +nor uncommon. The modern concierge's daughter who fulfils her ambition +by playing the Queen of Spain in Ruy Blas at the Theatre Francais is +only one of many thousands of men and women who have sloughed off their +native dialects and acquired a new tongue. But the thing has to be done +scientifically, or the last state of the aspirant may be worse than the +first. An honest and natural slum dialect is more tolerable than the +attempt of a phonetically untaught person to imitate the vulgar dialect +of the golf club; and I am sorry to say that in spite of the efforts of +our Academy of Dramatic Art, there is still too much sham golfing +English on our stage, and too little of the noble English of Forbes +Robertson. + + + +ACT I + +Covent Garden at 11.15 p.m. Torrents of heavy summer rain. Cab whistles +blowing frantically in all directions. Pedestrians running for shelter +into the market and under the portico of St. Paul's Church, where there +are already several people, among them a lady and her daughter in +evening dress. They are all peering out gloomily at the rain, except +one man with his back turned to the rest, who seems wholly preoccupied +with a notebook in which he is writing busily. + +The church clock strikes the first quarter. + +THE DAUGHTER [in the space between the central pillars, close to the +one on her left] I'm getting chilled to the bone. What can Freddy be +doing all this time? He's been gone twenty minutes. + +THE MOTHER [on her daughter's right] Not so long. But he ought to have +got us a cab by this. + +A BYSTANDER [on the lady's right] He won't get no cab not until +half-past eleven, missus, when they come back after dropping their +theatre fares. + +THE MOTHER. But we must have a cab. We can't stand here until half-past +eleven. It's too bad. + +THE BYSTANDER. Well, it ain't my fault, missus. + +THE DAUGHTER. If Freddy had a bit of gumption, he would have got one at +the theatre door. + +THE MOTHER. What could he have done, poor boy? + +THE DAUGHTER. Other people got cabs. Why couldn't he? + +Freddy rushes in out of the rain from the Southampton Street side, and +comes between them closing a dripping umbrella. He is a young man of +twenty, in evening dress, very wet around the ankles. + +THE DAUGHTER. Well, haven't you got a cab? + +FREDDY. There's not one to be had for love or money. + +THE MOTHER. Oh, Freddy, there must be one. You can't have tried. + +THE DAUGHTER. It's too tiresome. Do you expect us to go and get one +ourselves? + +FREDDY. I tell you they're all engaged. The rain was so sudden: nobody +was prepared; and everybody had to take a cab. I've been to Charing +Cross one way and nearly to Ludgate Circus the other; and they were all +engaged. + +THE MOTHER. Did you try Trafalgar Square? + +FREDDY. There wasn't one at Trafalgar Square. + +THE DAUGHTER. Did you try? + +FREDDY. I tried as far as Charing Cross Station. Did you expect me to +walk to Hammersmith? + +THE DAUGHTER. You haven't tried at all. + +THE MOTHER. You really are very helpless, Freddy. Go again; and don't +come back until you have found a cab. + +FREDDY. I shall simply get soaked for nothing. + +THE DAUGHTER. And what about us? Are we to stay here all night in this +draught, with next to nothing on. You selfish pig-- + +FREDDY. Oh, very well: I'll go, I'll go. [He opens his umbrella and +dashes off Strandwards, but comes into collision with a flower girl, +who is hurrying in for shelter, knocking her basket out of her hands. A +blinding flash of lightning, followed instantly by a rattling peal of +thunder, orchestrates the incident] + +THE FLOWER GIRL. Nah then, Freddy: look wh' y' gowin, deah. + +FREDDY. Sorry [he rushes off]. + +THE FLOWER GIRL [picking up her scattered flowers and replacing them in +the basket] There's menners f' yer! Te-oo banches o voylets trod into +the mad. [She sits down on the plinth of the column, sorting her +flowers, on the lady's right. She is not at all an attractive person. +She is perhaps eighteen, perhaps twenty, hardly older. She wears a +little sailor hat of black straw that has long been exposed to the dust +and soot of London and has seldom if ever been brushed. Her hair needs +washing rather badly: its mousy color can hardly be natural. She wears +a shoddy black coat that reaches nearly to her knees and is shaped to +her waist. She has a brown skirt with a coarse apron. Her boots are +much the worse for wear. She is no doubt as clean as she can afford to +be; but compared to the ladies she is very dirty. Her features are no +worse than theirs; but their condition leaves something to be desired; +and she needs the services of a dentist]. + +THE MOTHER. How do you know that my son's name is Freddy, pray? + +THE FLOWER GIRL. Ow, eez ye-ooa san, is e? Wal, fewd dan y' de-ooty +bawmz a mather should, eed now bettern to spawl a pore gel's flahrzn +than ran awy atbaht pyin. Will ye-oo py me f'them? [Here, with +apologies, this desperate attempt to represent her dialect without a +phonetic alphabet must be abandoned as unintelligible outside London.] + +THE DAUGHTER. Do nothing of the sort, mother. The idea! + +THE MOTHER. Please allow me, Clara. Have you any pennies? + +THE DAUGHTER. No. I've nothing smaller than sixpence. + +THE FLOWER GIRL [hopefully] I can give you change for a tanner, kind +lady. + +THE MOTHER [to Clara] Give it to me. [Clara parts reluctantly]. Now [to +the girl] This is for your flowers. + +THE FLOWER GIRL. Thank you kindly, lady. + +THE DAUGHTER. Make her give you the change. These things are only a +penny a bunch. + +THE MOTHER. Do hold your tongue, Clara. [To the girl]. You can keep the +change. + +THE FLOWER GIRL. Oh, thank you, lady. + +THE MOTHER. Now tell me how you know that young gentleman's name. + +THE FLOWER GIRL. I didn't. + +THE MOTHER. I heard you call him by it. Don't try to deceive me. + +THE FLOWER GIRL [protesting] Who's trying to deceive you? I called him +Freddy or Charlie same as you might yourself if you was talking to a +stranger and wished to be pleasant. [She sits down beside her basket]. + +THE DAUGHTER. Sixpence thrown away! Really, mamma, you might have +spared Freddy that. [She retreats in disgust behind the pillar]. + +An elderly gentleman of the amiable military type rushes into shelter, +and closes a dripping umbrella. He is in the same plight as Freddy, +very wet about the ankles. He is in evening dress, with a light +overcoat. He takes the place left vacant by the daughter's retirement. + +THE GENTLEMAN. Phew! + +THE MOTHER [to the gentleman] Oh, sir, is there any sign of its +stopping? + +THE GENTLEMAN. I'm afraid not. It started worse than ever about two +minutes ago. [He goes to the plinth beside the flower girl; puts up his +foot on it; and stoops to turn down his trouser ends]. + +THE MOTHER. Oh, dear! [She retires sadly and joins her daughter]. + +THE FLOWER GIRL [taking advantage of the military gentleman's proximity +to establish friendly relations with him]. If it's worse it's a sign +it's nearly over. So cheer up, Captain; and buy a flower off a poor +girl. + +THE GENTLEMAN. I'm sorry, I haven't any change. + +THE FLOWER GIRL. I can give you change, Captain, + +THE GENTLEMEN. For a sovereign? I've nothing less. + +THE FLOWER GIRL. Garn! Oh do buy a flower off me, Captain. I can change +half-a-crown. Take this for tuppence. + +THE GENTLEMAN. Now don't be troublesome: there's a good girl. [Trying +his pockets] I really haven't any change--Stop: here's three hapence, +if that's any use to you [he retreats to the other pillar]. + +THE FLOWER GIRL [disappointed, but thinking three halfpence better than +nothing] Thank you, sir. + +THE BYSTANDER [to the girl] You be careful: give him a flower for it. +There's a bloke here behind taking down every blessed word you're +saying. [All turn to the man who is taking notes]. + +THE FLOWER GIRL [springing up terrified] I ain't done nothing wrong by +speaking to the gentleman. I've a right to sell flowers if I keep off +the kerb. [Hysterically] I'm a respectable girl: so help me, I never +spoke to him except to ask him to buy a flower off me. [General hubbub, +mostly sympathetic to the flower girl, but deprecating her excessive +sensibility. Cries of Don't start hollerin. Who's hurting you? Nobody's +going to touch you. What's the good of fussing? Steady on. Easy, easy, +etc., come from the elderly staid spectators, who pat her comfortingly. +Less patient ones bid her shut her head, or ask her roughly what is +wrong with her. A remoter group, not knowing what the matter is, crowd +in and increase the noise with question and answer: What's the row? +What she do? Where is he? A tec taking her down. What! him? Yes: him +over there: Took money off the gentleman, etc. The flower girl, +distraught and mobbed, breaks through them to the gentleman, crying +mildly] Oh, sir, don't let him charge me. You dunno what it means to +me. They'll take away my character and drive me on the streets for +speaking to gentlemen. They-- + +THE NOTE TAKER [coming forward on her right, the rest crowding after +him] There, there, there, there! Who's hurting you, you silly girl? +What do you take me for? + +THE BYSTANDER. It's all right: he's a gentleman: look at his boots. +[Explaining to the note taker] She thought you was a copper's nark, sir. + +THE NOTE TAKER [with quick interest] What's a copper's nark? + +THE BYSTANDER [inept at definition] It's a--well, it's a copper's nark, +as you might say. What else would you call it? A sort of informer. + +THE FLOWER GIRL [still hysterical] I take my Bible oath I never said a +word-- + +THE NOTE TAKER [overbearing but good-humored] Oh, shut up, shut up. Do +I look like a policeman? + +THE FLOWER GIRL [far from reassured] Then what did you take down my +words for? How do I know whether you took me down right? You just show +me what you've wrote about me. [The note taker opens his book and holds +it steadily under her nose, though the pressure of the mob trying to +read it over his shoulders would upset a weaker man]. What's that? That +ain't proper writing. I can't read that. + +THE NOTE TAKER. I can. [Reads, reproducing her pronunciation exactly] +"Cheer ap, Keptin; n' haw ya flahr orf a pore gel." + +THE FLOWER GIRL [much distressed] It's because I called him Captain. I +meant no harm. [To the gentleman] Oh, sir, don't let him lay a charge +agen me for a word like that. You-- + +THE GENTLEMAN. Charge! I make no charge. [To the note taker] Really, +sir, if you are a detective, you need not begin protecting me against +molestation by young women until I ask you. Anybody could see that the +girl meant no harm. + +THE BYSTANDERS GENERALLY [demonstrating against police espionage] +Course they could. What business is it of yours? You mind your own +affairs. He wants promotion, he does. Taking down people's words! Girl +never said a word to him. What harm if she did? Nice thing a girl can't +shelter from the rain without being insulted, etc., etc., etc. [She is +conducted by the more sympathetic demonstrators back to her plinth, +where she resumes her seat and struggles with her emotion]. + +THE BYSTANDER. He ain't a tec. He's a blooming busybody: that's what he +is. I tell you, look at his boots. + +THE NOTE TAKER [turning on him genially] And how are all your people +down at Selsey? + +THE BYSTANDER [suspiciously] Who told you my people come from Selsey? + +THE NOTE TAKER. Never you mind. They did. [To the girl] How do you come +to be up so far east? You were born in Lisson Grove. + +THE FLOWER GIRL [appalled] Oh, what harm is there in my leaving Lisson +Grove? It wasn't fit for a pig to live in; and I had to pay +four-and-six a week. [In tears] Oh, boo--hoo--oo-- + +THE NOTE TAKER. Live where you like; but stop that noise. + +THE GENTLEMAN [to the girl] Come, come! he can't touch you: you have a +right to live where you please. + +A SARCASTIC BYSTANDER [thrusting himself between the note taker and the +gentleman] Park Lane, for instance. I'd like to go into the Housing +Question with you, I would. + +THE FLOWER GIRL [subsiding into a brooding melancholy over her basket, +and talking very low-spiritedly to herself] I'm a good girl, I am. + +THE SARCASTIC BYSTANDER [not attending to her] Do you know where _I_ +come from? + +THE NOTE TAKER [promptly] Hoxton. + +Titterings. Popular interest in the note taker's performance increases. + +THE SARCASTIC ONE [amazed] Well, who said I didn't? Bly me! You know +everything, you do. + +THE FLOWER GIRL [still nursing her sense of injury] Ain't no call to +meddle with me, he ain't. + +THE BYSTANDER [to her] Of course he ain't. Don't you stand it from him. +[To the note taker] See here: what call have you to know about people +what never offered to meddle with you? Where's your warrant? + +SEVERAL BYSTANDERS [encouraged by this seeming point of law] Yes: +where's your warrant? + +THE FLOWER GIRL. Let him say what he likes. I don't want to have no +truck with him. + +THE BYSTANDER. You take us for dirt under your feet, don't you? Catch +you taking liberties with a gentleman! + +THE SARCASTIC BYSTANDER. Yes: tell HIM where he come from if you want +to go fortune-telling. + +THE NOTE TAKER. Cheltenham, Harrow, Cambridge, and India. + +THE GENTLEMAN. Quite right. [Great laughter. Reaction in the note +taker's favor. Exclamations of He knows all about it. Told him proper. +Hear him tell the toff where he come from? etc.]. May I ask, sir, do +you do this for your living at a music hall? + +THE NOTE TAKER. I've thought of that. Perhaps I shall some day. + +The rain has stopped; and the persons on the outside of the crowd begin +to drop off. + +THE FLOWER GIRL [resenting the reaction] He's no gentleman, he ain't, +to interfere with a poor girl. + +THE DAUGHTER [out of patience, pushing her way rudely to the front and +displacing the gentleman, who politely retires to the other side of the +pillar] What on earth is Freddy doing? I shall get pneumonia if I stay +in this draught any longer. + +THE NOTE TAKER [to himself, hastily making a note of her pronunciation +of "monia"] Earlscourt. + +THE DAUGHTER [violently] Will you please keep your impertinent remarks +to yourself? + +THE NOTE TAKER. Did I say that out loud? I didn't mean to. I beg your +pardon. Your mother's Epsom, unmistakeably. + +THE MOTHER [advancing between her daughter and the note taker] How very +curious! I was brought up in Largelady Park, near Epsom. + +THE NOTE TAKER [uproariously amused] Ha! ha! What a devil of a name! +Excuse me. [To the daughter] You want a cab, do you? + +THE DAUGHTER. Don't dare speak to me. + +THE MOTHER. Oh, please, please Clara. [Her daughter repudiates her with +an angry shrug and retires haughtily.] We should be so grateful to you, +sir, if you found us a cab. [The note taker produces a whistle]. Oh, +thank you. [She joins her daughter]. The note taker blows a piercing +blast. + +THE SARCASTIC BYSTANDER. There! I knowed he was a plain-clothes copper. + +THE BYSTANDER. That ain't a police whistle: that's a sporting whistle. + +THE FLOWER GIRL [still preoccupied with her wounded feelings] He's no +right to take away my character. My character is the same to me as any +lady's. + +THE NOTE TAKER. I don't know whether you've noticed it; but the rain +stopped about two minutes ago. + +THE BYSTANDER. So it has. Why didn't you say so before? and us losing +our time listening to your silliness. [He walks off towards the Strand]. + +THE SARCASTIC BYSTANDER. I can tell where you come from. You come from +Anwell. Go back there. + +THE NOTE TAKER [helpfully] _H_anwell. + +THE SARCASTIC BYSTANDER [affecting great distinction of speech] Thenk +you, teacher. Haw haw! So long [he touches his hat with mock respect +and strolls off]. + +THE FLOWER GIRL. Frightening people like that! How would he like it +himself. + +THE MOTHER. It's quite fine now, Clara. We can walk to a motor bus. +Come. [She gathers her skirts above her ankles and hurries off towards +the Strand]. + +THE DAUGHTER. But the cab--[her mother is out of hearing]. Oh, how +tiresome! [She follows angrily]. + +All the rest have gone except the note taker, the gentleman, and the +flower girl, who sits arranging her basket, and still pitying herself +in murmurs. + +THE FLOWER GIRL. Poor girl! Hard enough for her to live without being +worrited and chivied. + +THE GENTLEMAN [returning to his former place on the note taker's left] +How do you do it, if I may ask? + +THE NOTE TAKER. Simply phonetics. The science of speech. That's my +profession; also my hobby. Happy is the man who can make a living by +his hobby! You can spot an Irishman or a Yorkshireman by his brogue. I +can place any man within six miles. I can place him within two miles in +London. Sometimes within two streets. + +THE FLOWER GIRL. Ought to be ashamed of himself, unmanly coward! + +THE GENTLEMAN. But is there a living in that? + +THE NOTE TAKER. Oh yes. Quite a fat one. This is an age of upstarts. +Men begin in Kentish Town with 80 pounds a year, and end in Park Lane +with a hundred thousand. They want to drop Kentish Town; but they give +themselves away every time they open their mouths. Now I can teach +them-- + +THE FLOWER GIRL. Let him mind his own business and leave a poor girl-- + +THE NOTE TAKER [explosively] Woman: cease this detestable boohooing +instantly; or else seek the shelter of some other place of worship. + +THE FLOWER GIRL [with feeble defiance] I've a right to be here if I +like, same as you. + +THE NOTE TAKER. A woman who utters such depressing and disgusting +sounds has no right to be anywhere--no right to live. Remember that you +are a human being with a soul and the divine gift of articulate speech: +that your native language is the language of Shakespear and Milton and +The Bible; and don't sit there crooning like a bilious pigeon. + +THE FLOWER GIRL [quite overwhelmed, and looking up at him in mingled +wonder and deprecation without daring to raise her head] +Ah--ah--ah--ow--ow--oo! + +THE NOTE TAKER [whipping out his book] Heavens! what a sound! [He +writes; then holds out the book and reads, reproducing her vowels +exactly] Ah--ah--ah--ow--ow--ow--oo! + +THE FLOWER GIRL [tickled by the performance, and laughing in spite of +herself] Garn! + +THE NOTE TAKER. You see this creature with her kerbstone English: the +English that will keep her in the gutter to the end of her days. Well, +sir, in three months I could pass that girl off as a duchess at an +ambassador's garden party. I could even get her a place as lady's maid +or shop assistant, which requires better English. That's the sort of +thing I do for commercial millionaires. And on the profits of it I do +genuine scientific work in phonetics, and a little as a poet on +Miltonic lines. + +THE GENTLEMAN. I am myself a student of Indian dialects; and-- + +THE NOTE TAKER [eagerly] Are you? Do you know Colonel Pickering, the +author of Spoken Sanscrit? + +THE GENTLEMAN. I am Colonel Pickering. Who are you? + +THE NOTE TAKER. Henry Higgins, author of Higgins's Universal Alphabet. + +PICKERING [with enthusiasm] I came from India to meet you. + +HIGGINS. I was going to India to meet you. + +PICKERING. Where do you live? + +HIGGINS. 27A Wimpole Street. Come and see me tomorrow. + +PICKERING. I'm at the Carlton. Come with me now and let's have a jaw +over some supper. + +HIGGINS. Right you are. + +THE FLOWER GIRL [to Pickering, as he passes her] Buy a flower, kind +gentleman. I'm short for my lodging. + +PICKERING. I really haven't any change. I'm sorry [he goes away]. + +HIGGINS [shocked at girl's mendacity] Liar. You said you could change +half-a-crown. + +THE FLOWER GIRL [rising in desperation] You ought to be stuffed with +nails, you ought. [Flinging the basket at his feet] Take the whole +blooming basket for sixpence. + +The church clock strikes the second quarter. + +HIGGINS [hearing in it the voice of God, rebuking him for his Pharisaic +want of charity to the poor girl] A reminder. [He raises his hat +solemnly; then throws a handful of money into the basket and follows +Pickering]. + +THE FLOWER GIRL [picking up a half-crown] Ah--ow--ooh! [Picking up a +couple of florins] Aaah--ow--ooh! [Picking up several coins] +Aaaaaah--ow--ooh! [Picking up a half-sovereign] +Aasaaaaaaaaah--ow--ooh!!! + +FREDDY [springing out of a taxicab] Got one at last. Hallo! [To the +girl] Where are the two ladies that were here? + +THE FLOWER GIRL. They walked to the bus when the rain stopped. + +FREDDY. And left me with a cab on my hands. Damnation! + +THE FLOWER GIRL [with grandeur] Never you mind, young man. I'm going +home in a taxi. [She sails off to the cab. The driver puts his hand +behind him and holds the door firmly shut against her. Quite +understanding his mistrust, she shows him her handful of money]. +Eightpence ain't no object to me, Charlie. [He grins and opens the +door]. Angel Court, Drury Lane, round the corner of Micklejohn's oil +shop. Let's see how fast you can make her hop it. [She gets in and +pulls the door to with a slam as the taxicab starts]. + +FREDDY. Well, I'm dashed! + + + +ACT II + +Next day at 11 a.m. Higgins's laboratory in Wimpole Street. It is a +room on the first floor, looking on the street, and was meant for the +drawing-room. The double doors are in the middle of the back hall; and +persons entering find in the corner to their right two tall file +cabinets at right angles to one another against the walls. In this +corner stands a flat writing-table, on which are a phonograph, a +laryngoscope, a row of tiny organ pipes with a bellows, a set of lamp +chimneys for singing flames with burners attached to a gas plug in the +wall by an indiarubber tube, several tuning-forks of different sizes, a +life-size image of half a human head, showing in section the vocal +organs, and a box containing a supply of wax cylinders for the +phonograph. + +Further down the room, on the same side, is a fireplace, with a +comfortable leather-covered easy-chair at the side of the hearth +nearest the door, and a coal-scuttle. There is a clock on the +mantelpiece. Between the fireplace and the phonograph table is a stand +for newspapers. + +On the other side of the central door, to the left of the visitor, is a +cabinet of shallow drawers. On it is a telephone and the telephone +directory. The corner beyond, and most of the side wall, is occupied by +a grand piano, with the keyboard at the end furthest from the door, and +a bench for the player extending the full length of the keyboard. On +the piano is a dessert dish heaped with fruit and sweets, mostly +chocolates. + +The middle of the room is clear. Besides the easy chair, the piano +bench, and two chairs at the phonograph table, there is one stray +chair. It stands near the fireplace. On the walls, engravings; mostly +Piranesis and mezzotint portraits. No paintings. + +Pickering is seated at the table, putting down some cards and a +tuning-fork which he has been using. Higgins is standing up near him, +closing two or three file drawers which are hanging out. He appears in +the morning light as a robust, vital, appetizing sort of man of forty +or thereabouts, dressed in a professional-looking black frock-coat with +a white linen collar and black silk tie. He is of the energetic, +scientific type, heartily, even violently interested in everything that +can be studied as a scientific subject, and careless about himself and +other people, including their feelings. He is, in fact, but for his +years and size, rather like a very impetuous baby "taking notice" +eagerly and loudly, and requiring almost as much watching to keep him +out of unintended mischief. His manner varies from genial bullying when +he is in a good humor to stormy petulance when anything goes wrong; but +he is so entirely frank and void of malice that he remains likeable +even in his least reasonable moments. + +HIGGINS [as he shuts the last drawer] Well, I think that's the whole +show. + +PICKERING. It's really amazing. I haven't taken half of it in, you know. + +HIGGINS. Would you like to go over any of it again? + +PICKERING [rising and coming to the fireplace, where he plants himself +with his back to the fire] No, thank you; not now. I'm quite done up +for this morning. + +HIGGINS [following him, and standing beside him on his left] Tired of +listening to sounds? + +PICKERING. Yes. It's a fearful strain. I rather fancied myself because +I can pronounce twenty-four distinct vowel sounds; but your hundred and +thirty beat me. I can't hear a bit of difference between most of them. + +HIGGINS [chuckling, and going over to the piano to eat sweets] Oh, that +comes with practice. You hear no difference at first; but you keep on +listening, and presently you find they're all as different as A from B. +[Mrs. Pearce looks in: she is Higgins's housekeeper] What's the matter? + +MRS. PEARCE [hesitating, evidently perplexed] A young woman wants to +see you, sir. + +HIGGINS. A young woman! What does she want? + +MRS. PEARCE. Well, sir, she says you'll be glad to see her when you +know what she's come about. She's quite a common girl, sir. Very common +indeed. I should have sent her away, only I thought perhaps you wanted +her to talk into your machines. I hope I've not done wrong; but really +you see such queer people sometimes--you'll excuse me, I'm sure, sir-- + +HIGGINS. Oh, that's all right, Mrs. Pearce. Has she an interesting +accent? + +MRS. PEARCE. Oh, something dreadful, sir, really. I don't know how you +can take an interest in it. + +HIGGINS [to Pickering] Let's have her up. Show her up, Mrs. Pearce [he +rushes across to his working table and picks out a cylinder to use on +the phonograph]. + +MRS. PEARCE [only half resigned to it] Very well, sir. It's for you to +say. [She goes downstairs]. + +HIGGINS. This is rather a bit of luck. I'll show you how I make +records. We'll set her talking; and I'll take it down first in Bell's +visible Speech; then in broad Romic; and then we'll get her on the +phonograph so that you can turn her on as often as you like with the +written transcript before you. + +MRS. PEARCE [returning] This is the young woman, sir. + +The flower girl enters in state. She has a hat with three ostrich +feathers, orange, sky-blue, and red. She has a nearly clean apron, and +the shoddy coat has been tidied a little. The pathos of this deplorable +figure, with its innocent vanity and consequential air, touches +Pickering, who has already straightened himself in the presence of Mrs. +Pearce. But as to Higgins, the only distinction he makes between men +and women is that when he is neither bullying nor exclaiming to the +heavens against some featherweight cross, he coaxes women as a child +coaxes its nurse when it wants to get anything out of her. + +HIGGINS [brusquely, recognizing her with unconcealed disappointment, +and at once, baby-like, making an intolerable grievance of it] Why, +this is the girl I jotted down last night. She's no use: I've got all +the records I want of the Lisson Grove lingo; and I'm not going to +waste another cylinder on it. [To the girl] Be off with you: I don't +want you. + +THE FLOWER GIRL. Don't you be so saucy. You ain't heard what I come for +yet. [To Mrs. Pearce, who is waiting at the door for further +instruction] Did you tell him I come in a taxi? + +MRS. PEARCE. Nonsense, girl! what do you think a gentleman like Mr. +Higgins cares what you came in? + +THE FLOWER GIRL. Oh, we are proud! He ain't above giving lessons, not +him: I heard him say so. Well, I ain't come here to ask for any +compliment; and if my money's not good enough I can go elsewhere. + +HIGGINS. Good enough for what? + +THE FLOWER GIRL. Good enough for ye--oo. Now you know, don't you? I'm +come to have lessons, I am. And to pay for em too: make no mistake. + +HIGGINS [stupent] WELL!!! [Recovering his breath with a gasp] What do +you expect me to say to you? + +THE FLOWER GIRL. Well, if you was a gentleman, you might ask me to sit +down, I think. Don't I tell you I'm bringing you business? + +HIGGINS. Pickering: shall we ask this baggage to sit down or shall we +throw her out of the window? + +THE FLOWER GIRL [running away in terror to the piano, where she turns +at bay] Ah--ah--ah--ow--ow--ow--oo! [Wounded and whimpering] I won't be +called a baggage when I've offered to pay like any lady. + +Motionless, the two men stare at her from the other side of the room, +amazed. + +PICKERING [gently] What is it you want, my girl? + +THE FLOWER GIRL. I want to be a lady in a flower shop stead of selling +at the corner of Tottenham Court Road. But they won't take me unless I +can talk more genteel. He said he could teach me. Well, here I am ready +to pay him--not asking any favor--and he treats me as if I was dirt. + +MRS. PEARCE. How can you be such a foolish ignorant girl as to think +you could afford to pay Mr. Higgins? + +THE FLOWER GIRL. Why shouldn't I? I know what lessons cost as well as +you do; and I'm ready to pay. + +HIGGINS. How much? + +THE FLOWER GIRL [coming back to him, triumphant] Now you're talking! I +thought you'd come off it when you saw a chance of getting back a bit +of what you chucked at me last night. [Confidentially] You'd had a drop +in, hadn't you? + +HIGGINS [peremptorily] Sit down. + +THE FLOWER GIRL. Oh, if you're going to make a compliment of it-- + +HIGGINS [thundering at her] Sit down. + +MRS. PEARCE [severely] Sit down, girl. Do as you're told. [She places +the stray chair near the hearthrug between Higgins and Pickering, and +stands behind it waiting for the girl to sit down]. + +THE FLOWER GIRL. Ah--ah--ah--ow--ow--oo! [She stands, half rebellious, +half bewildered]. + +PICKERING [very courteous] Won't you sit down? + +LIZA [coyly] Don't mind if I do. [She sits down. Pickering returns to +the hearthrug]. + +HIGGINS. What's your name? + +THE FLOWER GIRL. Liza Doolittle. + +HIGGINS [declaiming gravely] + Eliza, Elizabeth, Betsy and Bess, + They went to the woods to get a bird's nes': + +PICKERING. They found a nest with four eggs in it: + +HIGGINS. They took one apiece, and left three in it. + +They laugh heartily at their own wit. + +LIZA. Oh, don't be silly. + +MRS. PEARCE. You mustn't speak to the gentleman like that. + +LIZA. Well, why won't he speak sensible to me? + +HIGGINS. Come back to business. How much do you propose to pay me for +the lessons? + +LIZA. Oh, I know what's right. A lady friend of mine gets French +lessons for eighteenpence an hour from a real French gentleman. Well, +you wouldn't have the face to ask me the same for teaching me my own +language as you would for French; so I won't give more than a shilling. +Take it or leave it. + +HIGGINS [walking up and down the room, rattling his keys and his cash +in his pockets] You know, Pickering, if you consider a shilling, not as +a simple shilling, but as a percentage of this girl's income, it works +out as fully equivalent to sixty or seventy guineas from a millionaire. + +PICKERING. How so? + +HIGGINS. Figure it out. A millionaire has about 150 pounds a day. She +earns about half-a-crown. + +LIZA [haughtily] Who told you I only-- + +HIGGINS [continuing] She offers me two-fifths of her day's income for a +lesson. Two-fifths of a millionaire's income for a day would be +somewhere about 60 pounds. It's handsome. By George, it's enormous! +it's the biggest offer I ever had. + +LIZA [rising, terrified] Sixty pounds! What are you talking about? I +never offered you sixty pounds. Where would I get-- + +HIGGINS. Hold your tongue. + +LIZA [weeping] But I ain't got sixty pounds. Oh-- + +MRS. PEARCE. Don't cry, you silly girl. Sit down. Nobody is going to +touch your money. + +HIGGINS. Somebody is going to touch you, with a broomstick, if you +don't stop snivelling. Sit down. + +LIZA [obeying slowly] Ah--ah--ah--ow--oo--o! One would think you was my +father. + +HIGGINS. If I decide to teach you, I'll be worse than two fathers to +you. Here [he offers her his silk handkerchief]! + +LIZA. What's this for? + +HIGGINS. To wipe your eyes. To wipe any part of your face that feels +moist. Remember: that's your handkerchief; and that's your sleeve. +Don't mistake the one for the other if you wish to become a lady in a +shop. + +Liza, utterly bewildered, stares helplessly at him. + +MRS. PEARCE. It's no use talking to her like that, Mr. Higgins: she +doesn't understand you. Besides, you're quite wrong: she doesn't do it +that way at all [she takes the handkerchief]. + +LIZA [snatching it] Here! You give me that handkerchief. He give it to +me, not to you. + +PICKERING [laughing] He did. I think it must be regarded as her +property, Mrs. Pearce. + +MRS. PEARCE [resigning herself] Serve you right, Mr. Higgins. + +PICKERING. Higgins: I'm interested. What about the ambassador's garden +party? I'll say you're the greatest teacher alive if you make that +good. I'll bet you all the expenses of the experiment you can't do it. +And I'll pay for the lessons. + +LIZA. Oh, you are real good. Thank you, Captain. + +HIGGINS [tempted, looking at her] It's almost irresistible. She's so +deliciously low--so horribly dirty-- + +LIZA [protesting extremely] Ah--ah--ah--ah--ow--ow--oooo!!! I ain't +dirty: I washed my face and hands afore I come, I did. + +PICKERING. You're certainly not going to turn her head with flattery, +Higgins. + +MRS. PEARCE [uneasy] Oh, don't say that, sir: there's more ways than +one of turning a girl's head; and nobody can do it better than Mr. +Higgins, though he may not always mean it. I do hope, sir, you won't +encourage him to do anything foolish. + +HIGGINS [becoming excited as the idea grows on him] What is life but a +series of inspired follies? The difficulty is to find them to do. Never +lose a chance: it doesn't come every day. I shall make a duchess of +this draggletailed guttersnipe. + +LIZA [strongly deprecating this view of her] Ah--ah--ah--ow--ow--oo! + +HIGGINS [carried away] Yes: in six months--in three if she has a good +ear and a quick tongue--I'll take her anywhere and pass her off as +anything. We'll start today: now! this moment! Take her away and clean +her, Mrs. Pearce. Monkey Brand, if it won't come off any other way. Is +there a good fire in the kitchen? + +MRS. PEARCE [protesting]. Yes; but-- + +HIGGINS [storming on] Take all her clothes off and burn them. Ring up +Whiteley or somebody for new ones. Wrap her up in brown paper till they +come. + +LIZA. You're no gentleman, you're not, to talk of such things. I'm a +good girl, I am; and I know what the like of you are, I do. + +HIGGINS. We want none of your Lisson Grove prudery here, young woman. +You've got to learn to behave like a duchess. Take her away, Mrs. +Pearce. If she gives you any trouble wallop her. + +LIZA [springing up and running between Pickering and Mrs. Pearce for +protection] No! I'll call the police, I will. + +MRS. PEARCE. But I've no place to put her. + +HIGGINS. Put her in the dustbin. + +LIZA. Ah--ah--ah--ow--ow--oo! + +PICKERING. Oh come, Higgins! be reasonable. + +MRS. PEARCE [resolutely] You must be reasonable, Mr. Higgins: really +you must. You can't walk over everybody like this. + +Higgins, thus scolded, subsides. The hurricane is succeeded by a zephyr +of amiable surprise. + +HIGGINS [with professional exquisiteness of modulation] I walk over +everybody! My dear Mrs. Pearce, my dear Pickering, I never had the +slightest intention of walking over anyone. All I propose is that we +should be kind to this poor girl. We must help her to prepare and fit +herself for her new station in life. If I did not express myself +clearly it was because I did not wish to hurt her delicacy, or yours. + +Liza, reassured, steals back to her chair. + +MRS. PEARCE [to Pickering] Well, did you ever hear anything like that, +sir? + +PICKERING [laughing heartily] Never, Mrs. Pearce: never. + +HIGGINS [patiently] What's the matter? + +MRS. PEARCE. Well, the matter is, sir, that you can't take a girl up +like that as if you were picking up a pebble on the beach. + +HIGGINS. Why not? + +MRS. PEARCE. Why not! But you don't know anything about her. What about +her parents? She may be married. + +LIZA. Garn! + +HIGGINS. There! As the girl very properly says, Garn! Married indeed! +Don't you know that a woman of that class looks a worn out drudge of +fifty a year after she's married. + +LIZA. Who'd marry me? + +HIGGINS [suddenly resorting to the most thrillingly beautiful low tones +in his best elocutionary style] By George, Eliza, the streets will be +strewn with the bodies of men shooting themselves for your sake before +I've done with you. + +MRS. PEARCE. Nonsense, sir. You mustn't talk like that to her. + +LIZA [rising and squaring herself determinedly] I'm going away. He's +off his chump, he is. I don't want no balmies teaching me. + +HIGGINS [wounded in his tenderest point by her insensibility to his +elocution] Oh, indeed! I'm mad, am I? Very well, Mrs. Pearce: you +needn't order the new clothes for her. Throw her out. + +LIZA [whimpering] Nah--ow. You got no right to touch me. + +MRS. PEARCE. You see now what comes of being saucy. [Indicating the +door] This way, please. + +LIZA [almost in tears] I didn't want no clothes. I wouldn't have taken +them [she throws away the handkerchief]. I can buy my own clothes. + +HIGGINS [deftly retrieving the handkerchief and intercepting her on her +reluctant way to the door] You're an ungrateful wicked girl. This is my +return for offering to take you out of the gutter and dress you +beautifully and make a lady of you. + +MRS. PEARCE. Stop, Mr. Higgins. I won't allow it. It's you that are +wicked. Go home to your parents, girl; and tell them to take better +care of you. + +LIZA. I ain't got no parents. They told me I was big enough to earn my +own living and turned me out. + +MRS. PEARCE. Where's your mother? + +LIZA. I ain't got no mother. Her that turned me out was my sixth +stepmother. But I done without them. And I'm a good girl, I am. + +HIGGINS. Very well, then, what on earth is all this fuss about? The +girl doesn't belong to anybody--is no use to anybody but me. [He goes +to Mrs. Pearce and begins coaxing]. You can adopt her, Mrs. Pearce: I'm +sure a daughter would be a great amusement to you. Now don't make any +more fuss. Take her downstairs; and-- + +MRS. PEARCE. But what's to become of her? Is she to be paid anything? +Do be sensible, sir. + +HIGGINS. Oh, pay her whatever is necessary: put it down in the +housekeeping book. [Impatiently] What on earth will she want with +money? She'll have her food and her clothes. She'll only drink if you +give her money. + +LIZA [turning on him] Oh you are a brute. It's a lie: nobody ever saw +the sign of liquor on me. [She goes back to her chair and plants +herself there defiantly]. + +PICKERING [in good-humored remonstrance] Does it occur to you, Higgins, +that the girl has some feelings? + +HIGGINS [looking critically at her] Oh no, I don't think so. Not any +feelings that we need bother about. [Cheerily] Have you, Eliza? + +LIZA. I got my feelings same as anyone else. + +HIGGINS [to Pickering, reflectively] You see the difficulty? + +PICKERING. Eh? What difficulty? + +HIGGINS. To get her to talk grammar. The mere pronunciation is easy +enough. + +LIZA. I don't want to talk grammar. I want to talk like a lady. + +MRS. PEARCE. Will you please keep to the point, Mr. Higgins. I want to +know on what terms the girl is to be here. Is she to have any wages? +And what is to become of her when you've finished your teaching? You +must look ahead a little. + +HIGGINS [impatiently] What's to become of her if I leave her in the +gutter? Tell me that, Mrs. Pearce. + +MRS. PEARCE. That's her own business, not yours, Mr. Higgins. + +HIGGINS. Well, when I've done with her, we can throw her back into the +gutter; and then it will be her own business again; so that's all right. + +LIZA. Oh, you've no feeling heart in you: you don't care for nothing +but yourself [she rises and takes the floor resolutely]. Here! I've had +enough of this. I'm going [making for the door]. You ought to be +ashamed of yourself, you ought. + +HIGGINS [snatching a chocolate cream from the piano, his eyes suddenly +beginning to twinkle with mischief] Have some chocolates, Eliza. + +LIZA [halting, tempted] How do I know what might be in them? I've heard +of girls being drugged by the like of you. + +Higgins whips out his penknife; cuts a chocolate in two; puts one half +into his mouth and bolts it; and offers her the other half. + +HIGGINS. Pledge of good faith, Eliza. I eat one half you eat the other. + +[Liza opens her mouth to retort: he pops the half chocolate into it]. +You shall have boxes of them, barrels of them, every day. You shall +live on them. Eh? + +LIZA [who has disposed of the chocolate after being nearly choked by +it] I wouldn't have ate it, only I'm too ladylike to take it out of my +mouth. + +HIGGINS. Listen, Eliza. I think you said you came in a taxi. + +LIZA. Well, what if I did? I've as good a right to take a taxi as +anyone else. + +HIGGINS. You have, Eliza; and in future you shall have as many taxis as +you want. You shall go up and down and round the town in a taxi every +day. Think of that, Eliza. + +MRS. PEARCE. Mr. Higgins: you're tempting the girl. It's not right. She +should think of the future. + +HIGGINS. At her age! Nonsense! Time enough to think of the future when +you haven't any future to think of. No, Eliza: do as this lady does: +think of other people's futures; but never think of your own. Think of +chocolates, and taxis, and gold, and diamonds. + +LIZA. No: I don't want no gold and no diamonds. I'm a good girl, I am. +[She sits down again, with an attempt at dignity]. + +HIGGINS. You shall remain so, Eliza, under the care of Mrs. Pearce. And +you shall marry an officer in the Guards, with a beautiful moustache: +the son of a marquis, who will disinherit him for marrying you, but +will relent when he sees your beauty and goodness-- + +PICKERING. Excuse me, Higgins; but I really must interfere. Mrs. Pearce +is quite right. If this girl is to put herself in your hands for six +months for an experiment in teaching, she must understand thoroughly +what she's doing. + +HIGGINS. How can she? She's incapable of understanding anything. +Besides, do any of us understand what we are doing? If we did, would we +ever do it? + +PICKERING. Very clever, Higgins; but not sound sense. [To Eliza] Miss +Doolittle-- + +LIZA [overwhelmed] Ah--ah--ow--oo! + +HIGGINS. There! That's all you get out of Eliza. Ah--ah--ow--oo! No use +explaining. As a military man you ought to know that. Give her her +orders: that's what she wants. Eliza: you are to live here for the next +six months, learning how to speak beautifully, like a lady in a +florist's shop. If you're good and do whatever you're told, you shall +sleep in a proper bedroom, and have lots to eat, and money to buy +chocolates and take rides in taxis. If you're naughty and idle you will +sleep in the back kitchen among the black beetles, and be walloped by +Mrs. Pearce with a broomstick. At the end of six months you shall go to +Buckingham Palace in a carriage, beautifully dressed. If the King finds +out you're not a lady, you will be taken by the police to the Tower of +London, where your head will be cut off as a warning to other +presumptuous flower girls. If you are not found out, you shall have a +present of seven-and-sixpence to start life with as a lady in a shop. +If you refuse this offer you will be a most ungrateful and wicked girl; +and the angels will weep for you. [To Pickering] Now are you satisfied, +Pickering? [To Mrs. Pearce] Can I put it more plainly and fairly, Mrs. +Pearce? + +MRS. PEARCE [patiently] I think you'd better let me speak to the girl +properly in private. I don't know that I can take charge of her or +consent to the arrangement at all. Of course I know you don't mean her +any harm; but when you get what you call interested in people's +accents, you never think or care what may happen to them or you. Come +with me, Eliza. + +HIGGINS. That's all right. Thank you, Mrs. Pearce. Bundle her off to +the bath-room. + +LIZA [rising reluctantly and suspiciously] You're a great bully, you +are. I won't stay here if I don't like. I won't let nobody wallop me. I +never asked to go to Bucknam Palace, I didn't. I was never in trouble +with the police, not me. I'm a good girl-- + +MRS. PEARCE. Don't answer back, girl. You don't understand the +gentleman. Come with me. [She leads the way to the door, and holds it +open for Eliza]. + +LIZA [as she goes out] Well, what I say is right. I won't go near the +king, not if I'm going to have my head cut off. If I'd known what I was +letting myself in for, I wouldn't have come here. I always been a good +girl; and I never offered to say a word to him; and I don't owe him +nothing; and I don't care; and I won't be put upon; and I have my +feelings the same as anyone else-- + +Mrs. Pearce shuts the door; and Eliza's plaints are no longer audible. +Pickering comes from the hearth to the chair and sits astride it with +his arms on the back. + +PICKERING. Excuse the straight question, Higgins. Are you a man of good +character where women are concerned? + +HIGGINS [moodily] Have you ever met a man of good character where women +are concerned? + +PICKERING. Yes: very frequently. + +HIGGINS [dogmatically, lifting himself on his hands to the level of the +piano, and sitting on it with a bounce] Well, I haven't. I find that +the moment I let a woman make friends with me, she becomes jealous, +exacting, suspicious, and a damned nuisance. I find that the moment I +let myself make friends with a woman, I become selfish and tyrannical. +Women upset everything. When you let them into your life, you find that +the woman is driving at one thing and you're driving at another. + +PICKERING. At what, for example? + +HIGGINS [coming off the piano restlessly] Oh, Lord knows! I suppose the +woman wants to live her own life; and the man wants to live his; and +each tries to drag the other on to the wrong track. One wants to go +north and the other south; and the result is that both have to go east, +though they both hate the east wind. [He sits down on the bench at the +keyboard]. So here I am, a confirmed old bachelor, and likely to remain +so. + +PICKERING [rising and standing over him gravely] Come, Higgins! You +know what I mean. If I'm to be in this business I shall feel +responsible for that girl. I hope it's understood that no advantage is +to be taken of her position. + +HIGGINS. What! That thing! Sacred, I assure you. [Rising to explain] +You see, she'll be a pupil; and teaching would be impossible unless +pupils were sacred. I've taught scores of American millionairesses how +to speak English: the best looking women in the world. I'm seasoned. +They might as well be blocks of wood. I might as well be a block of +wood. It's-- + +Mrs. Pearce opens the door. She has Eliza's hat in her hand. Pickering +retires to the easy-chair at the hearth and sits down. + +HIGGINS [eagerly] Well, Mrs. Pearce: is it all right? + +MRS. PEARCE [at the door] I just wish to trouble you with a word, if I +may, Mr. Higgins. + +HIGGINS. Yes, certainly. Come in. [She comes forward]. Don't burn that, +Mrs. Pearce. I'll keep it as a curiosity. [He takes the hat]. + +MRS. PEARCE. Handle it carefully, sir, please. I had to promise her not +to burn it; but I had better put it in the oven for a while. + +HIGGINS [putting it down hastily on the piano] Oh! thank you. Well, +what have you to say to me? + +PICKERING. Am I in the way? + +MRS. PEARCE. Not at all, sir. Mr. Higgins: will you please be very +particular what you say before the girl? + +HIGGINS [sternly] Of course. I'm always particular about what I say. +Why do you say this to me? + +MRS. PEARCE [unmoved] No, sir: you're not at all particular when you've +mislaid anything or when you get a little impatient. Now it doesn't +matter before me: I'm used to it. But you really must not swear before +the girl. + +HIGGINS [indignantly] I swear! [Most emphatically] I never swear. I +detest the habit. What the devil do you mean? + +MRS. PEARCE [stolidly] That's what I mean, sir. You swear a great deal +too much. I don't mind your damning and blasting, and what the devil +and where the devil and who the devil-- + +HIGGINS. Really! Mrs. Pearce: this language from your lips! + +MRS. PEARCE [not to be put off]--but there is a certain word I must ask +you not to use. The girl has just used it herself because the bath was +too hot. It begins with the same letter as bath. She knows no better: +she learnt it at her mother's knee. But she must not hear it from your +lips. + +HIGGINS [loftily] I cannot charge myself with having ever uttered it, +Mrs. Pearce. [She looks at him steadfastly. He adds, hiding an uneasy +conscience with a judicial air] Except perhaps in a moment of extreme +and justifiable excitement. + +MRS. PEARCE. Only this morning, sir, you applied it to your boots, to +the butter, and to the brown bread. + +HIGGINS. Oh, that! Mere alliteration, Mrs. Pearce, natural to a poet. + +MRS. PEARCE. Well, sir, whatever you choose to call it, I beg you not +to let the girl hear you repeat it. + +HIGGINS. Oh, very well, very well. Is that all? + +MRS. PEARCE. No, sir. We shall have to be very particular with this +girl as to personal cleanliness. + +HIGGINS. Certainly. Quite right. Most important. + +MRS. PEARCE. I mean not to be slovenly about her dress or untidy in +leaving things about. + +HIGGINS [going to her solemnly] Just so. I intended to call your +attention to that [He passes on to Pickering, who is enjoying the +conversation immensely]. It is these little things that matter, +Pickering. Take care of the pence and the pounds will take care of +themselves is as true of personal habits as of money. [He comes to +anchor on the hearthrug, with the air of a man in an unassailable +position]. + +MRS. PEARCE. Yes, sir. Then might I ask you not to come down to +breakfast in your dressing-gown, or at any rate not to use it as a +napkin to the extent you do, sir. And if you would be so good as not to +eat everything off the same plate, and to remember not to put the +porridge saucepan out of your hand on the clean tablecloth, it would be +a better example to the girl. You know you nearly choked yourself with +a fishbone in the jam only last week. + +HIGGINS [routed from the hearthrug and drifting back to the piano] I +may do these things sometimes in absence of mind; but surely I don't do +them habitually. [Angrily] By the way: my dressing-gown smells most +damnably of benzine. + +MRS. PEARCE. No doubt it does, Mr. Higgins. But if you will wipe your +fingers-- + +HIGGINS [yelling] Oh very well, very well: I'll wipe them in my hair in +future. + +MRS. PEARCE. I hope you're not offended, Mr. Higgins. + +HIGGINS [shocked at finding himself thought capable of an unamiable +sentiment] Not at all, not at all. You're quite right, Mrs. Pearce: I +shall be particularly careful before the girl. Is that all? + +MRS. PEARCE. No, sir. Might she use some of those Japanese dresses you +brought from abroad? I really can't put her back into her old things. + +HIGGINS. Certainly. Anything you like. Is that all? + +MRS. PEARCE. Thank you, sir. That's all. [She goes out]. + +HIGGINS. You know, Pickering, that woman has the most extraordinary +ideas about me. Here I am, a shy, diffident sort of man. I've never +been able to feel really grown-up and tremendous, like other chaps. And +yet she's firmly persuaded that I'm an arbitrary overbearing bossing +kind of person. I can't account for it. + +Mrs. Pearce returns. + +MRS. PEARCE. If you please, sir, the trouble's beginning already. +There's a dustman downstairs, Alfred Doolittle, wants to see you. He +says you have his daughter here. + +PICKERING [rising] Phew! I say! [He retreats to the hearthrug]. + +HIGGINS [promptly] Send the blackguard up. + +MRS. PEARCE. Oh, very well, sir. [She goes out]. + +PICKERING. He may not be a blackguard, Higgins. + +HIGGINS. Nonsense. Of course he's a blackguard. + +PICKERING. Whether he is or not, I'm afraid we shall have some trouble +with him. + +HIGGINS [confidently] Oh no: I think not. If there's any trouble he +shall have it with me, not I with him. And we are sure to get something +interesting out of him. + +PICKERING. About the girl? + +HIGGINS. No. I mean his dialect. + +PICKERING. Oh! + +MRS. PEARCE [at the door] Doolittle, sir. [She admits Doolittle and +retires]. + +Alfred Doolittle is an elderly but vigorous dustman, clad in the +costume of his profession, including a hat with a back brim covering +his neck and shoulders. He has well marked and rather interesting +features, and seems equally free from fear and conscience. He has a +remarkably expressive voice, the result of a habit of giving vent to +his feelings without reserve. His present pose is that of wounded honor +and stern resolution. + +DOOLITTLE [at the door, uncertain which of the two gentlemen is his +man] Professor Higgins? + +HIGGINS. Here. Good morning. Sit down. + +DOOLITTLE. Morning, Governor. [He sits down magisterially] I come about +a very serious matter, Governor. + +HIGGINS [to Pickering] Brought up in Hounslow. Mother Welsh, I should +think. [Doolittle opens his mouth, amazed. Higgins continues] What do +you want, Doolittle? + +DOOLITTLE [menacingly] I want my daughter: that's what I want. See? + +HIGGINS. Of course you do. You're her father, aren't you? You don't +suppose anyone else wants her, do you? I'm glad to see you have some +spark of family feeling left. She's upstairs. Take her away at once. + +DOOLITTLE [rising, fearfully taken aback] What! + +HIGGINS. Take her away. Do you suppose I'm going to keep your daughter +for you? + +DOOLITTLE [remonstrating] Now, now, look here, Governor. Is this +reasonable? Is it fair to take advantage of a man like this? The girl +belongs to me. You got her. Where do I come in? [He sits down again]. + +HIGGINS. Your daughter had the audacity to come to my house and ask me +to teach her how to speak properly so that she could get a place in a +flower-shop. This gentleman and my housekeeper have been here all the +time. [Bullying him] How dare you come here and attempt to blackmail +me? You sent her here on purpose. + +DOOLITTLE [protesting] No, Governor. + +HIGGINS. You must have. How else could you possibly know that she is +here? + +DOOLITTLE. Don't take a man up like that, Governor. + +HIGGINS. The police shall take you up. This is a plant--a plot to +extort money by threats. I shall telephone for the police [he goes +resolutely to the telephone and opens the directory]. + +DOOLITTLE. Have I asked you for a brass farthing? I leave it to the +gentleman here: have I said a word about money? + +HIGGINS [throwing the book aside and marching down on Doolittle with a +poser] What else did you come for? + +DOOLITTLE [sweetly] Well, what would a man come for? Be human, governor. + +HIGGINS [disarmed] Alfred: did you put her up to it? + +DOOLITTLE. So help me, Governor, I never did. I take my Bible oath I +ain't seen the girl these two months past. + +HIGGINS. Then how did you know she was here? + +DOOLITTLE ["most musical, most melancholy"] I'll tell you, Governor, if +you'll only let me get a word in. I'm willing to tell you. I'm wanting +to tell you. I'm waiting to tell you. + +HIGGINS. Pickering: this chap has a certain natural gift of rhetoric. +Observe the rhythm of his native woodnotes wild. "I'm willing to tell +you: I'm wanting to tell you: I'm waiting to tell you." Sentimental +rhetoric! That's the Welsh strain in him. It also accounts for his +mendacity and dishonesty. + +PICKERING. Oh, PLEASE, Higgins: I'm west country myself. [To Doolittle] +How did you know the girl was here if you didn't send her? + +DOOLITTLE. It was like this, Governor. The girl took a boy in the taxi +to give him a jaunt. Son of her landlady, he is. He hung about on the +chance of her giving him another ride home. Well, she sent him back for +her luggage when she heard you was willing for her to stop here. I met +the boy at the corner of Long Acre and Endell Street. + +HIGGINS. Public house. Yes? + +DOOLITTLE. The poor man's club, Governor: why shouldn't I? + +PICKERING. Do let him tell his story, Higgins. + +DOOLITTLE. He told me what was up. And I ask you, what was my feelings +and my duty as a father? I says to the boy, "You bring me the luggage," +I says-- + +PICKERING. Why didn't you go for it yourself? + +DOOLITTLE. Landlady wouldn't have trusted me with it, Governor. She's +that kind of woman: you know. I had to give the boy a penny afore he +trusted me with it, the little swine. I brought it to her just to +oblige you like, and make myself agreeable. That's all. + +HIGGINS. How much luggage? + +DOOLITTLE. Musical instrument, Governor. A few pictures, a trifle of +jewelry, and a bird-cage. She said she didn't want no clothes. What was +I to think from that, Governor? I ask you as a parent what was I to +think? + +HIGGINS. So you came to rescue her from worse than death, eh? + +DOOLITTLE [appreciatively: relieved at being understood] Just so, +Governor. That's right. + +PICKERING. But why did you bring her luggage if you intended to take +her away? + +DOOLITTLE. Have I said a word about taking her away? Have I now? + +HIGGINS [determinedly] You're going to take her away, double quick. [He +crosses to the hearth and rings the bell]. + +DOOLITTLE [rising] No, Governor. Don't say that. I'm not the man to +stand in my girl's light. Here's a career opening for her, as you might +say; and-- + +Mrs. Pearce opens the door and awaits orders. + +HIGGINS. Mrs. Pearce: this is Eliza's father. He has come to take her +away. Give her to him. [He goes back to the piano, with an air of +washing his hands of the whole affair]. + +DOOLITTLE. No. This is a misunderstanding. Listen here-- + +MRS. PEARCE. He can't take her away, Mr. Higgins: how can he? You told +me to burn her clothes. + +DOOLITTLE. That's right. I can't carry the girl through the streets +like a blooming monkey, can I? I put it to you. + +HIGGINS. You have put it to me that you want your daughter. Take your +daughter. If she has no clothes go out and buy her some. + +DOOLITTLE [desperate] Where's the clothes she come in? Did I burn them +or did your missus here? + +MRS. PEARCE. I am the housekeeper, if you please. I have sent for some +clothes for your girl. When they come you can take her away. You can +wait in the kitchen. This way, please. + +Doolittle, much troubled, accompanies her to the door; then hesitates; +finally turns confidentially to Higgins. + +DOOLITTLE. Listen here, Governor. You and me is men of the world, ain't +we? + +HIGGINS. Oh! Men of the world, are we? You'd better go, Mrs. Pearce. + +MRS. PEARCE. I think so, indeed, sir. [She goes, with dignity]. + +PICKERING. The floor is yours, Mr. Doolittle. + +DOOLITTLE [to Pickering] I thank you, Governor. [To Higgins, who takes +refuge on the piano bench, a little overwhelmed by the proximity of his +visitor; for Doolittle has a professional flavor of dust about him]. +Well, the truth is, I've taken a sort of fancy to you, Governor; and if +you want the girl, I'm not so set on having her back home again but +what I might be open to an arrangement. Regarded in the light of a +young woman, she's a fine handsome girl. As a daughter she's not worth +her keep; and so I tell you straight. All I ask is my rights as a +father; and you're the last man alive to expect me to let her go for +nothing; for I can see you're one of the straight sort, Governor. Well, +what's a five pound note to you? And what's Eliza to me? [He returns to +his chair and sits down judicially]. + +PICKERING. I think you ought to know, Doolittle, that Mr. Higgins's +intentions are entirely honorable. + +DOOLITTLE. Course they are, Governor. If I thought they wasn't, I'd ask +fifty. + +HIGGINS [revolted] Do you mean to say, you callous rascal, that you +would sell your daughter for 50 pounds? + +DOOLITTLE. Not in a general way I wouldn't; but to oblige a gentleman +like you I'd do a good deal, I do assure you. + +PICKERING. Have you no morals, man? + +DOOLITTLE [unabashed] Can't afford them, Governor. Neither could you if +you was as poor as me. Not that I mean any harm, you know. But if Liza +is going to have a bit out of this, why not me too? + +HIGGINS [troubled] I don't know what to do, Pickering. There can be no +question that as a matter of morals it's a positive crime to give this +chap a farthing. And yet I feel a sort of rough justice in his claim. + +DOOLITTLE. That's it, Governor. That's all I say. A father's heart, as +it were. + +PICKERING. Well, I know the feeling; but really it seems hardly right-- + +DOOLITTLE. Don't say that, Governor. Don't look at it that way. What am +I, Governors both? I ask you, what am I? I'm one of the undeserving +poor: that's what I am. Think of what that means to a man. It means +that he's up agen middle class morality all the time. If there's +anything going, and I put in for a bit of it, it's always the same +story: "You're undeserving; so you can't have it." But my needs is as +great as the most deserving widow's that ever got money out of six +different charities in one week for the death of the same husband. I +don't need less than a deserving man: I need more. I don't eat less +hearty than him; and I drink a lot more. I want a bit of amusement, +cause I'm a thinking man. I want cheerfulness and a song and a band +when I feel low. Well, they charge me just the same for everything as +they charge the deserving. What is middle class morality? Just an +excuse for never giving me anything. Therefore, I ask you, as two +gentlemen, not to play that game on me. I'm playing straight with you. +I ain't pretending to be deserving. I'm undeserving; and I mean to go +on being undeserving. I like it; and that's the truth. Will you take +advantage of a man's nature to do him out of the price of his own +daughter what he's brought up and fed and clothed by the sweat of his +brow until she's growed big enough to be interesting to you two +gentlemen? Is five pounds unreasonable? I put it to you; and I leave it +to you. + +HIGGINS [rising, and going over to Pickering] Pickering: if we were to +take this man in hand for three months, he could choose between a seat +in the Cabinet and a popular pulpit in Wales. + +PICKERING. What do you say to that, Doolittle? + +DOOLITTLE. Not me, Governor, thank you kindly. I've heard all the +preachers and all the prime ministers--for I'm a thinking man and game +for politics or religion or social reform same as all the other +amusements--and I tell you it's a dog's life anyway you look at it. +Undeserving poverty is my line. Taking one station in society with +another, it's--it's--well, it's the only one that has any ginger in it, +to my taste. + +HIGGINS. I suppose we must give him a fiver. + +PICKERING. He'll make a bad use of it, I'm afraid. + +DOOLITTLE. Not me, Governor, so help me I won't. Don't you be afraid +that I'll save it and spare it and live idle on it. There won't be a +penny of it left by Monday: I'll have to go to work same as if I'd +never had it. It won't pauperize me, you bet. Just one good spree for +myself and the missus, giving pleasure to ourselves and employment to +others, and satisfaction to you to think it's not been throwed away. +You couldn't spend it better. + +HIGGINS [taking out his pocket book and coming between Doolittle and +the piano] This is irresistible. Let's give him ten. [He offers two +notes to the dustman]. + +DOOLITTLE. No, Governor. She wouldn't have the heart to spend ten; and +perhaps I shouldn't neither. Ten pounds is a lot of money: it makes a +man feel prudent like; and then goodbye to happiness. You give me what +I ask you, Governor: not a penny more, and not a penny less. + +PICKERING. Why don't you marry that missus of yours? I rather draw the +line at encouraging that sort of immorality. + +DOOLITTLE. Tell her so, Governor: tell her so. I'm willing. It's me +that suffers by it. I've no hold on her. I got to be agreeable to her. +I got to give her presents. I got to buy her clothes something sinful. +I'm a slave to that woman, Governor, just because I'm not her lawful +husband. And she knows it too. Catch her marrying me! Take my advice, +Governor: marry Eliza while she's young and don't know no better. If +you don't you'll be sorry for it after. If you do, she'll be sorry for +it after; but better you than her, because you're a man, and she's only +a woman and don't know how to be happy anyhow. + +HIGGINS. Pickering: if we listen to this man another minute, we shall +have no convictions left. [To Doolittle] Five pounds I think you said. + +DOOLITTLE. Thank you kindly, Governor. + +HIGGINS. You're sure you won't take ten? + +DOOLITTLE. Not now. Another time, Governor. + +HIGGINS [handing him a five-pound note] Here you are. + +DOOLITTLE. Thank you, Governor. Good morning. + +[He hurries to the door, anxious to get away with his booty. When he +opens it he is confronted with a dainty and exquisitely clean young +Japanese lady in a simple blue cotton kimono printed cunningly with +small white jasmine blossoms. Mrs. Pearce is with her. He gets out of +her way deferentially and apologizes]. Beg pardon, miss. + +THE JAPANESE LADY. Garn! Don't you know your own daughter? + + DOOLITTLE {exclaiming Bly me! it's Eliza! + HIGGINS {simul- What's that! This! + PICKERING {taneously By Jove! + +LIZA. Don't I look silly? + +HIGGINS. Silly? + +MRS. PEARCE [at the door] Now, Mr. Higgins, please don't say anything +to make the girl conceited about herself. + +HIGGINS [conscientiously] Oh! Quite right, Mrs. Pearce. [To Eliza] Yes: +damned silly. + +MRS. PEARCE. Please, sir. + +HIGGINS [correcting himself] I mean extremely silly. + +LIZA. I should look all right with my hat on. [She takes up her hat; +puts it on; and walks across the room to the fireplace with a +fashionable air]. + +HIGGINS. A new fashion, by George! And it ought to look horrible! + +DOOLITTLE [with fatherly pride] Well, I never thought she'd clean up as +good looking as that, Governor. She's a credit to me, ain't she? + +LIZA. I tell you, it's easy to clean up here. Hot and cold water on +tap, just as much as you like, there is. Woolly towels, there is; and a +towel horse so hot, it burns your fingers. Soft brushes to scrub +yourself, and a wooden bowl of soap smelling like primroses. Now I know +why ladies is so clean. Washing's a treat for them. Wish they saw what +it is for the like of me! + +HIGGINS. I'm glad the bath-room met with your approval. + +LIZA. It didn't: not all of it; and I don't care who hears me say it. +Mrs. Pearce knows. + +HIGGINS. What was wrong, Mrs. Pearce? + +MRS. PEARCE [blandly] Oh, nothing, sir. It doesn't matter. + +LIZA. I had a good mind to break it. I didn't know which way to look. +But I hung a towel over it, I did. + +HIGGINS. Over what? + +MRS. PEARCE. Over the looking-glass, sir. + +HIGGINS. Doolittle: you have brought your daughter up too strictly. + +DOOLITTLE. Me! I never brought her up at all, except to give her a lick +of a strap now and again. Don't put it on me, Governor. She ain't +accustomed to it, you see: that's all. But she'll soon pick up your +free-and-easy ways. + +LIZA. I'm a good girl, I am; and I won't pick up no free and easy ways. + +HIGGINS. Eliza: if you say again that you're a good girl, your father +shall take you home. + +LIZA. Not him. You don't know my father. All he come here for was to +touch you for some money to get drunk on. + +DOOLITTLE. Well, what else would I want money for? To put into the +plate in church, I suppose. [She puts out her tongue at him. He is so +incensed by this that Pickering presently finds it necessary to step +between them]. Don't you give me none of your lip; and don't let me +hear you giving this gentleman any of it neither, or you'll hear from +me about it. See? + +HIGGINS. Have you any further advice to give her before you go, +Doolittle? Your blessing, for instance. + +DOOLITTLE. No, Governor: I ain't such a mug as to put up my children to +all I know myself. Hard enough to hold them in without that. If you +want Eliza's mind improved, Governor, you do it yourself with a strap. +So long, gentlemen. [He turns to go]. + +HIGGINS [impressively] Stop. You'll come regularly to see your +daughter. It's your duty, you know. My brother is a clergyman; and he +could help you in your talks with her. + +DOOLITTLE [evasively] Certainly. I'll come, Governor. Not just this +week, because I have a job at a distance. But later on you may depend +on me. Afternoon, gentlemen. Afternoon, ma'am. [He takes off his hat to +Mrs. Pearce, who disdains the salutation and goes out. He winks at +Higgins, thinking him probably a fellow sufferer from Mrs. Pearce's +difficult disposition, and follows her]. + +LIZA. Don't you believe the old liar. He'd as soon you set a bull-dog +on him as a clergyman. You won't see him again in a hurry. + +HIGGINS. I don't want to, Eliza. Do you? + +LIZA. Not me. I don't want never to see him again, I don't. He's a +disgrace to me, he is, collecting dust, instead of working at his trade. + +PICKERING. What is his trade, Eliza? + +LIZA. Talking money out of other people's pockets into his own. His +proper trade's a navvy; and he works at it sometimes too--for +exercise--and earns good money at it. Ain't you going to call me Miss +Doolittle any more? + +PICKERING. I beg your pardon, Miss Doolittle. It was a slip of the +tongue. + +LIZA. Oh, I don't mind; only it sounded so genteel. I should just like +to take a taxi to the corner of Tottenham Court Road and get out there +and tell it to wait for me, just to put the girls in their place a bit. +I wouldn't speak to them, you know. + +PICKERING. Better wait til we get you something really fashionable. + +HIGGINS. Besides, you shouldn't cut your old friends now that you have +risen in the world. That's what we call snobbery. + +LIZA. You don't call the like of them my friends now, I should hope. +They've took it out of me often enough with their ridicule when they +had the chance; and now I mean to get a bit of my own back. But if I'm +to have fashionable clothes, I'll wait. I should like to have some. +Mrs. Pearce says you're going to give me some to wear in bed at night +different to what I wear in the daytime; but it do seem a waste of +money when you could get something to show. Besides, I never could +fancy changing into cold things on a winter night. + +MRS. PEARCE [coming back] Now, Eliza. The new things have come for you +to try on. + +LIZA. Ah--ow--oo--ooh! [She rushes out]. + +MRS. PEARCE [following her] Oh, don't rush about like that, girl [She +shuts the door behind her]. + +HIGGINS. Pickering: we have taken on a stiff job. + +PICKERING [with conviction] Higgins: we have. + + + +ACT III + +It is Mrs. Higgins's at-home day. Nobody has yet arrived. Her +drawing-room, in a flat on Chelsea embankment, has three windows +looking on the river; and the ceiling is not so lofty as it would be in +an older house of the same pretension. The windows are open, giving +access to a balcony with flowers in pots. If you stand with your face +to the windows, you have the fireplace on your left and the door in the +right-hand wall close to the corner nearest the windows. + +Mrs. Higgins was brought up on Morris and Burne Jones; and her room, +which is very unlike her son's room in Wimpole Street, is not crowded +with furniture and little tables and nicknacks. In the middle of the +room there is a big ottoman; and this, with the carpet, the Morris +wall-papers, and the Morris chintz window curtains and brocade covers +of the ottoman and its cushions, supply all the ornament, and are much +too handsome to be hidden by odds and ends of useless things. A few +good oil-paintings from the exhibitions in the Grosvenor Gallery thirty +years ago (the Burne Jones, not the Whistler side of them) are on the +walls. The only landscape is a Cecil Lawson on the scale of a Rubens. +There is a portrait of Mrs. Higgins as she was when she defied fashion +in her youth in one of the beautiful Rossettian costumes which, when +caricatured by people who did not understand, led to the absurdities of +popular estheticism in the eighteen-seventies. + +In the corner diagonally opposite the door Mrs. Higgins, now over sixty +and long past taking the trouble to dress out of the fashion, sits +writing at an elegantly simple writing-table with a bell button within +reach of her hand. There is a Chippendale chair further back in the +room between her and the window nearest her side. At the other side of +the room, further forward, is an Elizabethan chair roughly carved in +the taste of Inigo Jones. On the same side a piano in a decorated case. +The corner between the fireplace and the window is occupied by a divan +cushioned in Morris chintz. + +It is between four and five in the afternoon. + +The door is opened violently; and Higgins enters with his hat on. + +MRS. HIGGINS [dismayed] Henry [scolding him]! What are you doing here +to-day? It is my at home day: you promised not to come. [As he bends to +kiss her, she takes his hat off, and presents it to him]. + +HIGGINS. Oh bother! [He throws the hat down on the table]. + +MRS. HIGGINS. Go home at once. + +HIGGINS [kissing her] I know, mother. I came on purpose. + +MRS. HIGGINS. But you mustn't. I'm serious, Henry. You offend all my +friends: they stop coming whenever they meet you. + +HIGGINS. Nonsense! I know I have no small talk; but people don't mind. +[He sits on the settee]. + +MRS. HIGGINS. Oh! don't they? Small talk indeed! What about your large +talk? Really, dear, you mustn't stay. + +HIGGINS. I must. I've a job for you. A phonetic job. + +MRS. HIGGINS. No use, dear. I'm sorry; but I can't get round your +vowels; and though I like to get pretty postcards in your patent +shorthand, I always have to read the copies in ordinary writing you so +thoughtfully send me. + +HIGGINS. Well, this isn't a phonetic job. + +MRS. HIGGINS. You said it was. + +HIGGINS. Not your part of it. I've picked up a girl. + +MRS. HIGGINS. Does that mean that some girl has picked you up? + +HIGGINS. Not at all. I don't mean a love affair. + +MRS. HIGGINS. What a pity! + +HIGGINS. Why? + +MRS. HIGGINS. Well, you never fall in love with anyone under +forty-five. When will you discover that there are some rather +nice-looking young women about? + +HIGGINS. Oh, I can't be bothered with young women. My idea of a +loveable woman is something as like you as possible. I shall never get +into the way of seriously liking young women: some habits lie too deep +to be changed. [Rising abruptly and walking about, jingling his money +and his keys in his trouser pockets] Besides, they're all idiots. + +MRS. HIGGINS. Do you know what you would do if you really loved me, +Henry? + +HIGGINS. Oh bother! What? Marry, I suppose? + +MRS. HIGGINS. No. Stop fidgeting and take your hands out of your +pockets. [With a gesture of despair, he obeys and sits down again]. +That's a good boy. Now tell me about the girl. + +HIGGINS. She's coming to see you. + +MRS. HIGGINS. I don't remember asking her. + +HIGGINS. You didn't. I asked her. If you'd known her you wouldn't have +asked her. + +MRS. HIGGINS. Indeed! Why? + +HIGGINS. Well, it's like this. She's a common flower girl. I picked her +off the kerbstone. + +MRS. HIGGINS. And invited her to my at-home! + +HIGGINS [rising and coming to her to coax her] Oh, that'll be all +right. I've taught her to speak properly; and she has strict orders as +to her behavior. She's to keep to two subjects: the weather and +everybody's health--Fine day and How do you do, you know--and not to +let herself go on things in general. That will be safe. + +MRS. HIGGINS. Safe! To talk about our health! about our insides! +perhaps about our outsides! How could you be so silly, Henry? + +HIGGINS [impatiently] Well, she must talk about something. [He controls +himself and sits down again]. Oh, she'll be all right: don't you fuss. +Pickering is in it with me. I've a sort of bet on that I'll pass her +off as a duchess in six months. I started on her some months ago; and +she's getting on like a house on fire. I shall win my bet. She has a +quick ear; and she's been easier to teach than my middle-class pupils +because she's had to learn a complete new language. She talks English +almost as you talk French. + +MRS. HIGGINS. That's satisfactory, at all events. + +HIGGINS. Well, it is and it isn't. + +MRS. HIGGINS. What does that mean? + +HIGGINS. You see, I've got her pronunciation all right; but you have to +consider not only how a girl pronounces, but what she pronounces; and +that's where-- + +They are interrupted by the parlor-maid, announcing guests. + +THE PARLOR-MAID. Mrs. and Miss Eynsford Hill. [She withdraws]. + +HIGGINS. Oh Lord! [He rises; snatches his hat from the table; and makes +for the door; but before he reaches it his mother introduces him]. + +Mrs. and Miss Eynsford Hill are the mother and daughter who sheltered +from the rain in Covent Garden. The mother is well bred, quiet, and has +the habitual anxiety of straitened means. The daughter has acquired a +gay air of being very much at home in society: the bravado of genteel +poverty. + +MRS. EYNSFORD HILL [to Mrs. Higgins] How do you do? [They shake hands]. + +MISS EYNSFORD HILL. How d'you do? [She shakes]. + +MRS. HIGGINS [introducing] My son Henry. + +MRS. EYNSFORD HILL. Your celebrated son! I have so longed to meet you, +Professor Higgins. + +HIGGINS [glumly, making no movement in her direction] Delighted. [He +backs against the piano and bows brusquely]. + +Miss EYNSFORD HILL [going to him with confident familiarity] How do you +do? + +HIGGINS [staring at her] I've seen you before somewhere. I haven't the +ghost of a notion where; but I've heard your voice. [Drearily] It +doesn't matter. You'd better sit down. + +MRS. HIGGINS. I'm sorry to say that my celebrated son has no manners. +You mustn't mind him. + +MISS EYNSFORD HILL [gaily] I don't. [She sits in the Elizabethan chair]. + +MRS. EYNSFORD HILL [a little bewildered] Not at all. [She sits on the +ottoman between her daughter and Mrs. Higgins, who has turned her chair +away from the writing-table]. + +HIGGINS. Oh, have I been rude? I didn't mean to be. [He goes to the +central window, through which, with his back to the company, he +contemplates the river and the flowers in Battersea Park on the +opposite bank as if they were a frozen dessert.] + +The parlor-maid returns, ushering in Pickering. + +THE PARLOR-MAID. Colonel Pickering [She withdraws]. + +PICKERING. How do you do, Mrs. Higgins? + +MRS. HIGGINS. So glad you've come. Do you know Mrs. Eynsford Hill--Miss +Eynsford Hill? [Exchange of bows. The Colonel brings the Chippendale +chair a little forward between Mrs. Hill and Mrs. Higgins, and sits +down]. + +PICKERING. Has Henry told you what we've come for? + +HIGGINS [over his shoulder] We were interrupted: damn it! + +MRS. HIGGINS. Oh Henry, Henry, really! + +MRS. EYNSFORD HILL [half rising] Are we in the way? + +MRS. HIGGINS [rising and making her sit down again] No, no. You +couldn't have come more fortunately: we want you to meet a friend of +ours. + +HIGGINS [turning hopefully] Yes, by George! We want two or three +people. You'll do as well as anybody else. + +The parlor-maid returns, ushering Freddy. + +THE PARLOR-MAID. Mr. Eynsford Hill. + +HIGGINS [almost audibly, past endurance] God of Heaven! another of them. + +FREDDY [shaking hands with Mrs. Higgins] Ahdedo? + +MRS. HIGGINS. Very good of you to come. [Introducing] Colonel Pickering. + +FREDDY [bowing] Ahdedo? + +MRS. HIGGINS. I don't think you know my son, Professor Higgins. + +FREDDY [going to Higgins] Ahdedo? + +HIGGINS [looking at him much as if he were a pickpocket] I'll take my +oath I've met you before somewhere. Where was it? + +FREDDY. I don't think so. + +HIGGINS [resignedly] It don't matter, anyhow. Sit down. He shakes +Freddy's hand, and almost slings him on the ottoman with his face to +the windows; then comes round to the other side of it. + +HIGGINS. Well, here we are, anyhow! [He sits down on the ottoman next +Mrs. Eynsford Hill, on her left.] And now, what the devil are we going +to talk about until Eliza comes? + +MRS. HIGGINS. Henry: you are the life and soul of the Royal Society's +soirees; but really you're rather trying on more commonplace occasions. + +HIGGINS. Am I? Very sorry. [Beaming suddenly] I suppose I am, you know. +[Uproariously] Ha, ha! + +MISS EYNSFORD HILL [who considers Higgins quite eligible matrimonially] +I sympathize. I haven't any small talk. If people would only be frank +and say what they really think! + +HIGGINS [relapsing into gloom] Lord forbid! + +MRS. EYNSFORD HILL [taking up her daughter's cue] But why? + +HIGGINS. What they think they ought to think is bad enough, Lord knows; +but what they really think would break up the whole show. Do you +suppose it would be really agreeable if I were to come out now with +what I really think? + +MISS EYNSFORD HILL [gaily] Is it so very cynical? + +HIGGINS. Cynical! Who the dickens said it was cynical? I mean it +wouldn't be decent. + +MRS. EYNSFORD HILL [seriously] Oh! I'm sure you don't mean that, Mr. +Higgins. + +HIGGINS. You see, we're all savages, more or less. We're supposed to be +civilized and cultured--to know all about poetry and philosophy and art +and science, and so on; but how many of us know even the meanings of +these names? [To Miss Hill] What do you know of poetry? [To Mrs. Hill] +What do you know of science? [Indicating Freddy] What does he know of +art or science or anything else? What the devil do you imagine I know +of philosophy? + +MRS. HIGGINS [warningly] Or of manners, Henry? + +THE PARLOR-MAID [opening the door] Miss Doolittle. [She withdraws]. + +HIGGINS [rising hastily and running to Mrs. Higgins] Here she is, +mother. [He stands on tiptoe and makes signs over his mother's head to +Eliza to indicate to her which lady is her hostess]. + +Eliza, who is exquisitely dressed, produces an impression of such +remarkable distinction and beauty as she enters that they all rise, +quite flustered. Guided by Higgins's signals, she comes to Mrs. Higgins +with studied grace. + +LIZA [speaking with pedantic correctness of pronunciation and great +beauty of tone] How do you do, Mrs. Higgins? [She gasps slightly in +making sure of the H in Higgins, but is quite successful]. Mr. Higgins +told me I might come. + +MRS. HIGGINS [cordially] Quite right: I'm very glad indeed to see you. + +PICKERING. How do you do, Miss Doolittle? + +LIZA [shaking hands with him] Colonel Pickering, is it not? + +MRS. EYNSFORD HILL. I feel sure we have met before, Miss Doolittle. I +remember your eyes. + +LIZA. How do you do? [She sits down on the ottoman gracefully in the +place just left vacant by Higgins]. + +MRS. EYNSFORD HILL [introducing] My daughter Clara. + +LIZA. How do you do? + +CLARA [impulsively] How do you do? [She sits down on the ottoman beside +Eliza, devouring her with her eyes]. + +FREDDY [coming to their side of the ottoman] I've certainly had the +pleasure. + +MRS. EYNSFORD HILL [introducing] My son Freddy. + +LIZA. How do you do? + +Freddy bows and sits down in the Elizabethan chair, infatuated. + +HIGGINS [suddenly] By George, yes: it all comes back to me! [They stare +at him]. Covent Garden! [Lamentably] What a damned thing! + +MRS. HIGGINS. Henry, please! [He is about to sit on the edge of the +table]. Don't sit on my writing-table: you'll break it. + +HIGGINS [sulkily] Sorry. + +He goes to the divan, stumbling into the fender and over the fire-irons +on his way; extricating himself with muttered imprecations; and +finishing his disastrous journey by throwing himself so impatiently on +the divan that he almost breaks it. Mrs. Higgins looks at him, but +controls herself and says nothing. + +A long and painful pause ensues. + +MRS. HIGGINS [at last, conversationally] Will it rain, do you think? + +LIZA. The shallow depression in the west of these islands is likely to +move slowly in an easterly direction. There are no indications of any +great change in the barometrical situation. + +FREDDY. Ha! ha! how awfully funny! + +LIZA. What is wrong with that, young man? I bet I got it right. + +FREDDY. Killing! + +MRS. EYNSFORD HILL. I'm sure I hope it won't turn cold. There's so much +influenza about. It runs right through our whole family regularly every +spring. + +LIZA [darkly] My aunt died of influenza: so they said. + +MRS. EYNSFORD HILL [clicks her tongue sympathetically]!!! + +LIZA [in the same tragic tone] But it's my belief they done the old +woman in. + +MRS. HIGGINS [puzzled] Done her in? + +LIZA. Y-e-e-e-es, Lord love you! Why should she die of influenza? She +come through diphtheria right enough the year before. I saw her with my +own eyes. Fairly blue with it, she was. They all thought she was dead; +but my father he kept ladling gin down her throat til she came to so +sudden that she bit the bowl off the spoon. + +MRS. EYNSFORD HILL [startled] Dear me! + +LIZA [piling up the indictment] What call would a woman with that +strength in her have to die of influenza? What become of her new straw +hat that should have come to me? Somebody pinched it; and what I say +is, them as pinched it done her in. + +MRS. EYNSFORD HILL. What does doing her in mean? + +HIGGINS [hastily] Oh, that's the new small talk. To do a person in +means to kill them. + +MRS. EYNSFORD HILL [to Eliza, horrified] You surely don't believe that +your aunt was killed? + +LIZA. Do I not! Them she lived with would have killed her for a +hat-pin, let alone a hat. + +MRS. EYNSFORD HILL. But it can't have been right for your father to +pour spirits down her throat like that. It might have killed her. + +LIZA. Not her. Gin was mother's milk to her. Besides, he'd poured so +much down his own throat that he knew the good of it. + +MRS. EYNSFORD HILL. Do you mean that he drank? + +LIZA. Drank! My word! Something chronic. + +MRS. EYNSFORD HILL. How dreadful for you! + +LIZA. Not a bit. It never did him no harm what I could see. But then he +did not keep it up regular. [Cheerfully] On the burst, as you might +say, from time to time. And always more agreeable when he had a drop +in. When he was out of work, my mother used to give him fourpence and +tell him to go out and not come back until he'd drunk himself cheerful +and loving-like. There's lots of women has to make their husbands drunk +to make them fit to live with. [Now quite at her ease] You see, it's +like this. If a man has a bit of a conscience, it always takes him when +he's sober; and then it makes him low-spirited. A drop of booze just +takes that off and makes him happy. [To Freddy, who is in convulsions +of suppressed laughter] Here! what are you sniggering at? + +FREDDY. The new small talk. You do it so awfully well. + +LIZA. If I was doing it proper, what was you laughing at? [To Higgins] +Have I said anything I oughtn't? + +MRS. HIGGINS [interposing] Not at all, Miss Doolittle. + +LIZA. Well, that's a mercy, anyhow. [Expansively] What I always say is-- + +HIGGINS [rising and looking at his watch] Ahem! + +LIZA [looking round at him; taking the hint; and rising] Well: I must +go. [They all rise. Freddy goes to the door]. So pleased to have met +you. Good-bye. [She shakes hands with Mrs. Higgins]. + +MRS. HIGGINS. Good-bye. + +LIZA. Good-bye, Colonel Pickering. + +PICKERING. Good-bye, Miss Doolittle. [They shake hands]. + +LIZA [nodding to the others] Good-bye, all. + +FREDDY [opening the door for her] Are you walking across the Park, Miss +Doolittle? If so-- + +LIZA. Walk! Not bloody likely. [Sensation]. I am going in a taxi. [She +goes out]. + +Pickering gasps and sits down. Freddy goes out on the balcony to catch +another glimpse of Eliza. + +MRS. EYNSFORD HILL [suffering from shock] Well, I really can't get used +to the new ways. + +CLARA [throwing herself discontentedly into the Elizabethan chair]. Oh, +it's all right, mamma, quite right. People will think we never go +anywhere or see anybody if you are so old-fashioned. + +MRS. EYNSFORD HILL. I daresay I am very old-fashioned; but I do hope +you won't begin using that expression, Clara. I have got accustomed to +hear you talking about men as rotters, and calling everything filthy +and beastly; though I do think it horrible and unladylike. But this +last is really too much. Don't you think so, Colonel Pickering? + +PICKERING. Don't ask me. I've been away in India for several years; and +manners have changed so much that I sometimes don't know whether I'm at +a respectable dinner-table or in a ship's forecastle. + +CLARA. It's all a matter of habit. There's no right or wrong in it. +Nobody means anything by it. And it's so quaint, and gives such a smart +emphasis to things that are not in themselves very witty. I find the +new small talk delightful and quite innocent. + +MRS. EYNSFORD HILL [rising] Well, after that, I think it's time for us +to go. + +Pickering and Higgins rise. + +CLARA [rising] Oh yes: we have three at homes to go to still. Good-bye, +Mrs. Higgins. Good-bye, Colonel Pickering. Good-bye, Professor Higgins. + +HIGGINS [coming grimly at her from the divan, and accompanying her to +the door] Good-bye. Be sure you try on that small talk at the three +at-homes. Don't be nervous about it. Pitch it in strong. + +CLARA [all smiles] I will. Good-bye. Such nonsense, all this early +Victorian prudery! + +HIGGINS [tempting her] Such damned nonsense! + +CLARA. Such bloody nonsense! + +MRS. EYNSFORD HILL [convulsively] Clara! + +CLARA. Ha! ha! [She goes out radiant, conscious of being thoroughly up +to date, and is heard descending the stairs in a stream of silvery +laughter]. + +FREDDY [to the heavens at large] Well, I ask you [He gives it up, and +comes to Mrs. Higgins]. Good-bye. + +MRS. HIGGINS [shaking hands] Good-bye. Would you like to meet Miss +Doolittle again? + +FREDDY [eagerly] Yes, I should, most awfully. + +MRS. HIGGINS. Well, you know my days. + +FREDDY. Yes. Thanks awfully. Good-bye. [He goes out]. + +MRS. EYNSFORD HILL. Good-bye, Mr. Higgins. + +HIGGINS. Good-bye. Good-bye. + +MRS. EYNSFORD HILL [to Pickering] It's no use. I shall never be able to +bring myself to use that word. + +PICKERING. Don't. It's not compulsory, you know. You'll get on quite +well without it. + +MRS. EYNSFORD HILL. Only, Clara is so down on me if I am not positively +reeking with the latest slang. Good-bye. + +PICKERING. Good-bye [They shake hands]. + +MRS. EYNSFORD HILL [to Mrs. Higgins] You mustn't mind Clara. +[Pickering, catching from her lowered tone that this is not meant for +him to hear, discreetly joins Higgins at the window]. We're so poor! +and she gets so few parties, poor child! She doesn't quite know. [Mrs. +Higgins, seeing that her eyes are moist, takes her hand sympathetically +and goes with her to the door]. But the boy is nice. Don't you think so? + +MRS. HIGGINS. Oh, quite nice. I shall always be delighted to see him. + +MRS. EYNSFORD HILL. Thank you, dear. Good-bye. [She goes out]. + +HIGGINS [eagerly] Well? Is Eliza presentable [he swoops on his mother +and drags her to the ottoman, where she sits down in Eliza's place with +her son on her left]? + +Pickering returns to his chair on her right. + +MRS. HIGGINS. You silly boy, of course she's not presentable. She's a +triumph of your art and of her dressmaker's; but if you suppose for a +moment that she doesn't give herself away in every sentence she utters, +you must be perfectly cracked about her. + +PICKERING. But don't you think something might be done? I mean +something to eliminate the sanguinary element from her conversation. + +MRS. HIGGINS. Not as long as she is in Henry's hands. + +HIGGINS [aggrieved] Do you mean that my language is improper? + +MRS. HIGGINS. No, dearest: it would be quite proper--say on a canal +barge; but it would not be proper for her at a garden party. + +HIGGINS [deeply injured] Well I must say-- + +PICKERING [interrupting him] Come, Higgins: you must learn to know +yourself. I haven't heard such language as yours since we used to +review the volunteers in Hyde Park twenty years ago. + +HIGGINS [sulkily] Oh, well, if you say so, I suppose I don't always +talk like a bishop. + +MRS. HIGGINS [quieting Henry with a touch] Colonel Pickering: will you +tell me what is the exact state of things in Wimpole Street? + +PICKERING [cheerfully: as if this completely changed the subject] Well, +I have come to live there with Henry. We work together at my Indian +Dialects; and we think it more convenient-- + +MRS. HIGGINS. Quite so. I know all about that: it's an excellent +arrangement. But where does this girl live? + +HIGGINS. With us, of course. Where would she live? + +MRS. HIGGINS. But on what terms? Is she a servant? If not, what is she? + +PICKERING [slowly] I think I know what you mean, Mrs. Higgins. + +HIGGINS. Well, dash me if I do! I've had to work at the girl every day +for months to get her to her present pitch. Besides, she's useful. She +knows where my things are, and remembers my appointments and so forth. + +MRS. HIGGINS. How does your housekeeper get on with her? + +HIGGINS. Mrs. Pearce? Oh, she's jolly glad to get so much taken off her +hands; for before Eliza came, she had to have to find things and remind +me of my appointments. But she's got some silly bee in her bonnet about +Eliza. She keeps saying "You don't think, sir": doesn't she, Pick? + +PICKERING. Yes: that's the formula. "You don't think, sir." That's the +end of every conversation about Eliza. + +HIGGINS. As if I ever stop thinking about the girl and her confounded +vowels and consonants. I'm worn out, thinking about her, and watching +her lips and her teeth and her tongue, not to mention her soul, which +is the quaintest of the lot. + +MRS. HIGGINS. You certainly are a pretty pair of babies, playing with +your live doll. + +HIGGINS. Playing! The hardest job I ever tackled: make no mistake about +that, mother. But you have no idea how frightfully interesting it is to +take a human being and change her into a quite different human being by +creating a new speech for her. It's filling up the deepest gulf that +separates class from class and soul from soul. + +PICKERING [drawing his chair closer to Mrs. Higgins and bending over to +her eagerly] Yes: it's enormously interesting. I assure you, Mrs. +Higgins, we take Eliza very seriously. Every week--every day +almost--there is some new change. [Closer again] We keep records of +every stage--dozens of gramophone disks and photographs-- + +HIGGINS [assailing her at the other ear] Yes, by George: it's the most +absorbing experiment I ever tackled. She regularly fills our lives up; +doesn't she, Pick? + +PICKERING. We're always talking Eliza. + +HIGGINS. Teaching Eliza. + +PICKERING. Dressing Eliza. + +MRS. HIGGINS. What! + +HIGGINS. Inventing new Elizas. + +Higgins and Pickering, speaking together: + + HIGGINS. You know, she has the most extraordinary quickness of ear: + PICKERING. I assure you, my dear Mrs. Higgins, that girl + HIGGINS. just like a parrot. I've tried her with every + PICKERING. is a genius. She can play the piano quite beautifully + HIGGINS. possible sort of sound that a human being can make-- + PICKERING. We have taken her to classical concerts and to music + HIGGINS. Continental dialects, African dialects, Hottentot + PICKERING. halls; and it's all the same to her: she plays everything + HIGGINS. clicks, things it took me years to get hold of; and + PICKERING. she hears right off when she comes home, whether it's + HIGGINS. she picks them up like a shot, right away, as if she had + PICKERING. Beethoven and Brahms or Lehar and Lionel Morickton; + HIGGINS. been at it all her life. + PICKERING. though six months ago, she'd never as much as touched + a piano. + +MRS. HIGGINS [putting her fingers in her ears, as they are by this time +shouting one another down with an intolerable noise] Sh--sh--sh--sh! +[They stop]. + +PICKERING. I beg your pardon. [He draws his chair back apologetically]. + +HIGGINS. Sorry. When Pickering starts shouting nobody can get a word in +edgeways. + +MRS. HIGGINS. Be quiet, Henry. Colonel Pickering: don't you realize +that when Eliza walked into Wimpole Street, something walked in with +her? + +PICKERING. Her father did. But Henry soon got rid of him. + +MRS. HIGGINS. It would have been more to the point if her mother had. +But as her mother didn't something else did. + +PICKERING. But what? + +MRS. HIGGINS [unconsciously dating herself by the word] A problem. + +PICKERING. Oh, I see. The problem of how to pass her off as a lady. + +HIGGINS. I'll solve that problem. I've half solved it already. + +MRS. HIGGINS. No, you two infinitely stupid male creatures: the problem +of what is to be done with her afterwards. + +HIGGINS. I don't see anything in that. She can go her own way, with all +the advantages I have given her. + +MRS. HIGGINS. The advantages of that poor woman who was here just now! +The manners and habits that disqualify a fine lady from earning her own +living without giving her a fine lady's income! Is that what you mean? + +PICKERING [indulgently, being rather bored] Oh, that will be all right, +Mrs. Higgins. [He rises to go]. + +HIGGINS [rising also] We'll find her some light employment. + +PICKERING. She's happy enough. Don't you worry about her. Good-bye. [He +shakes hands as if he were consoling a frightened child, and makes for +the door]. + +HIGGINS. Anyhow, there's no good bothering now. The thing's done. +Good-bye, mother. [He kisses her, and follows Pickering]. + +PICKERING [turning for a final consolation] There are plenty of +openings. We'll do what's right. Good-bye. + +HIGGINS [to Pickering as they go out together] Let's take her to the +Shakespear exhibition at Earls Court. + +PICKERING. Yes: let's. Her remarks will be delicious. + +HIGGINS. She'll mimic all the people for us when we get home. + +PICKERING. Ripping. [Both are heard laughing as they go downstairs]. + +MRS. HIGGINS [rises with an impatient bounce, and returns to her work +at the writing-table. She sweeps a litter of disarranged papers out of +her way; snatches a sheet of paper from her stationery case; and tries +resolutely to write. At the third line she gives it up; flings down her +pen; grips the table angrily and exclaims] Oh, men! men!! men!!! + + + +ACT IV + +The Wimpole Street laboratory. Midnight. Nobody in the room. The clock +on the mantelpiece strikes twelve. The fire is not alight: it is a +summer night. + +Presently Higgins and Pickering are heard on the stairs. + +HIGGINS [calling down to Pickering] I say, Pick: lock up, will you. I +shan't be going out again. + +PICKERING. Right. Can Mrs. Pearce go to bed? We don't want anything +more, do we? + +HIGGINS. Lord, no! + +Eliza opens the door and is seen on the lighted landing in opera cloak, +brilliant evening dress, and diamonds, with fan, flowers, and all +accessories. She comes to the hearth, and switches on the electric +lights there. She is tired: her pallor contrasts strongly with her dark +eyes and hair; and her expression is almost tragic. She takes off her +cloak; puts her fan and flowers on the piano; and sits down on the +bench, brooding and silent. Higgins, in evening dress, with overcoat +and hat, comes in, carrying a smoking jacket which he has picked up +downstairs. He takes off the hat and overcoat; throws them carelessly +on the newspaper stand; disposes of his coat in the same way; puts on +the smoking jacket; and throws himself wearily into the easy-chair at +the hearth. Pickering, similarly attired, comes in. He also takes off +his hat and overcoat, and is about to throw them on Higgins's when he +hesitates. + +PICKERING. I say: Mrs. Pearce will row if we leave these things lying +about in the drawing-room. + +HIGGINS. Oh, chuck them over the bannisters into the hall. She'll find +them there in the morning and put them away all right. She'll think we +were drunk. + +PICKERING. We are, slightly. Are there any letters? + +HIGGINS. I didn't look. [Pickering takes the overcoats and hats and +goes down stairs. Higgins begins half singing half yawning an air from +La Fanciulla del Golden West. Suddenly he stops and exclaims] I wonder +where the devil my slippers are! + +Eliza looks at him darkly; then leaves the room. + +Higgins yawns again, and resumes his song. Pickering returns, with the +contents of the letter-box in his hand. + +PICKERING. Only circulars, and this coroneted billet-doux for you. [He +throws the circulars into the fender, and posts himself on the +hearthrug, with his back to the grate]. + +HIGGINS [glancing at the billet-doux] Money-lender. [He throws the +letter after the circulars]. + +Eliza returns with a pair of large down-at-heel slippers. She places +them on the carpet before Higgins, and sits as before without a word. + +HIGGINS [yawning again] Oh Lord! What an evening! What a crew! What a +silly tomfoollery! [He raises his shoe to unlace it, and catches sight +of the slippers. He stops unlacing and looks at them as if they had +appeared there of their own accord]. Oh! they're there, are they? + +PICKERING [stretching himself] Well, I feel a bit tired. It's been a +long day. The garden party, a dinner party, and the opera! Rather too +much of a good thing. But you've won your bet, Higgins. Eliza did the +trick, and something to spare, eh? + +HIGGINS [fervently] Thank God it's over! + +Eliza flinches violently; but they take no notice of her; and she +recovers herself and sits stonily as before. + +PICKERING. Were you nervous at the garden party? I was. Eliza didn't +seem a bit nervous. + +HIGGINS. Oh, she wasn't nervous. I knew she'd be all right. No, it's +the strain of putting the job through all these months that has told on +me. It was interesting enough at first, while we were at the phonetics; +but after that I got deadly sick of it. If I hadn't backed myself to do +it I should have chucked the whole thing up two months ago. It was a +silly notion: the whole thing has been a bore. + +PICKERING. Oh come! the garden party was frightfully exciting. My heart +began beating like anything. + +HIGGINS. Yes, for the first three minutes. But when I saw we were going +to win hands down, I felt like a bear in a cage, hanging about doing +nothing. The dinner was worse: sitting gorging there for over an hour, +with nobody but a damned fool of a fashionable woman to talk to! I tell +you, Pickering, never again for me. No more artificial duchesses. The +whole thing has been simple purgatory. + +PICKERING. You've never been broken in properly to the social routine. +[Strolling over to the piano] I rather enjoy dipping into it +occasionally myself: it makes me feel young again. Anyhow, it was a +great success: an immense success. I was quite frightened once or twice +because Eliza was doing it so well. You see, lots of the real people +can't do it at all: they're such fools that they think style comes by +nature to people in their position; and so they never learn. There's +always something professional about doing a thing superlatively well. + +HIGGINS. Yes: that's what drives me mad: the silly people don't know +their own silly business. [Rising] However, it's over and done with; +and now I can go to bed at last without dreading tomorrow. + +Eliza's beauty becomes murderous. + +PICKERING. I think I shall turn in too. Still, it's been a great +occasion: a triumph for you. Good-night. [He goes]. + +HIGGINS [following him] Good-night. [Over his shoulder, at the door] +Put out the lights, Eliza; and tell Mrs. Pearce not to make coffee for +me in the morning: I'll take tea. [He goes out]. + +Eliza tries to control herself and feel indifferent as she rises and +walks across to the hearth to switch off the lights. By the time she +gets there she is on the point of screaming. She sits down in Higgins's +chair and holds on hard to the arms. Finally she gives way and flings +herself furiously on the floor raging. + +HIGGINS [in despairing wrath outside] What the devil have I done with +my slippers? [He appears at the door]. + +LIZA [snatching up the slippers, and hurling them at him one after the +other with all her force] There are your slippers. And there. Take your +slippers; and may you never have a day's luck with them! + +HIGGINS [astounded] What on earth--! [He comes to her]. What's the +matter? Get up. [He pulls her up]. Anything wrong? + +LIZA [breathless] Nothing wrong--with YOU. I've won your bet for you, +haven't I? That's enough for you. _I_ don't matter, I suppose. + +HIGGINS. YOU won my bet! You! Presumptuous insect! _I_ won it. What did +you throw those slippers at me for? + +LIZA. Because I wanted to smash your face. I'd like to kill you, you +selfish brute. Why didn't you leave me where you picked me out of--in +the gutter? You thank God it's all over, and that now you can throw me +back again there, do you? [She crisps her fingers, frantically]. + +HIGGINS [looking at her in cool wonder] The creature IS nervous, after +all. + +LIZA [gives a suffocated scream of fury, and instinctively darts her +nails at his face]!! + +HIGGINS [catching her wrists] Ah! would you? Claws in, you cat. How +dare you show your temper to me? Sit down and be quiet. [He throws her +roughly into the easy-chair]. + +LIZA [crushed by superior strength and weight] What's to become of me? +What's to become of me? + +HIGGINS. How the devil do I know what's to become of you? What does it +matter what becomes of you? + +LIZA. You don't care. I know you don't care. You wouldn't care if I was +dead. I'm nothing to you--not so much as them slippers. + +HIGGINS [thundering] THOSE slippers. + +LIZA [with bitter submission] Those slippers. I didn't think it made +any difference now. + +A pause. Eliza hopeless and crushed. Higgins a little uneasy. + +HIGGINS [in his loftiest manner] Why have you begun going on like this? +May I ask whether you complain of your treatment here? + +LIZA. No. + +HIGGINS. Has anybody behaved badly to you? Colonel Pickering? Mrs. +Pearce? Any of the servants? + +LIZA. No. + +HIGGINS. I presume you don't pretend that I have treated you badly. + +LIZA. No. + +HIGGINS. I am glad to hear it. [He moderates his tone]. Perhaps you're +tired after the strain of the day. Will you have a glass of champagne? +[He moves towards the door]. + +LIZA. No. [Recollecting her manners] Thank you. + +HIGGINS [good-humored again] This has been coming on you for some days. +I suppose it was natural for you to be anxious about the garden party. +But that's all over now. [He pats her kindly on the shoulder. She +writhes]. There's nothing more to worry about. + +LIZA. No. Nothing more for you to worry about. [She suddenly rises and +gets away from him by going to the piano bench, where she sits and +hides her face]. Oh God! I wish I was dead. + +HIGGINS [staring after her in sincere surprise] Why? in heaven's name, +why? [Reasonably, going to her] Listen to me, Eliza. All this +irritation is purely subjective. + +LIZA. I don't understand. I'm too ignorant. + +HIGGINS. It's only imagination. Low spirits and nothing else. Nobody's +hurting you. Nothing's wrong. You go to bed like a good girl and sleep +it off. Have a little cry and say your prayers: that will make you +comfortable. + +LIZA. I heard YOUR prayers. "Thank God it's all over!" + +HIGGINS [impatiently] Well, don't you thank God it's all over? Now you +are free and can do what you like. + +LIZA [pulling herself together in desperation] What am I fit for? What +have you left me fit for? Where am I to go? What am I to do? What's to +become of me? + +HIGGINS [enlightened, but not at all impressed] Oh, that's what's +worrying you, is it? [He thrusts his hands into his pockets, and walks +about in his usual manner, rattling the contents of his pockets, as if +condescending to a trivial subject out of pure kindness]. I shouldn't +bother about it if I were you. I should imagine you won't have much +difficulty in settling yourself, somewhere or other, though I hadn't +quite realized that you were going away. [She looks quickly at him: he +does not look at her, but examines the dessert stand on the piano and +decides that he will eat an apple]. You might marry, you know. [He +bites a large piece out of the apple, and munches it noisily]. You see, +Eliza, all men are not confirmed old bachelors like me and the Colonel. +Most men are the marrying sort (poor devils!); and you're not +bad-looking; it's quite a pleasure to look at you sometimes--not now, +of course, because you're crying and looking as ugly as the very devil; +but when you're all right and quite yourself, you're what I should call +attractive. That is, to the people in the marrying line, you +understand. You go to bed and have a good nice rest; and then get up +and look at yourself in the glass; and you won't feel so cheap. + +Eliza again looks at him, speechless, and does not stir. + +The look is quite lost on him: he eats his apple with a dreamy +expression of happiness, as it is quite a good one. + +HIGGINS [a genial afterthought occurring to him] I daresay my mother +could find some chap or other who would do very well-- + +LIZA. We were above that at the corner of Tottenham Court Road. + +HIGGINS [waking up] What do you mean? + +LIZA. I sold flowers. I didn't sell myself. Now you've made a lady of +me I'm not fit to sell anything else. I wish you'd left me where you +found me. + +HIGGINS [slinging the core of the apple decisively into the grate] +Tosh, Eliza. Don't you insult human relations by dragging all this cant +about buying and selling into it. You needn't marry the fellow if you +don't like him. + +LIZA. What else am I to do? + +HIGGINS. Oh, lots of things. What about your old idea of a florist's +shop? Pickering could set you up in one: he's lots of money. +[Chuckling] He'll have to pay for all those togs you have been wearing +today; and that, with the hire of the jewellery, will make a big hole +in two hundred pounds. Why, six months ago you would have thought it +the millennium to have a flower shop of your own. Come! you'll be all +right. I must clear off to bed: I'm devilish sleepy. By the way, I came +down for something: I forget what it was. + +LIZA. Your slippers. + +HIGGINS. Oh yes, of course. You shied them at me. [He picks them up, +and is going out when she rises and speaks to him]. + +LIZA. Before you go, sir-- + +HIGGINS [dropping the slippers in his surprise at her calling him sir] +Eh? + +LIZA. Do my clothes belong to me or to Colonel Pickering? + +HIGGINS [coming back into the room as if her question were the very +climax of unreason] What the devil use would they be to Pickering? + +LIZA. He might want them for the next girl you pick up to experiment on. + +HIGGINS [shocked and hurt] Is THAT the way you feel towards us? + +LIZA. I don't want to hear anything more about that. All I want to know +is whether anything belongs to me. My own clothes were burnt. + +HIGGINS. But what does it matter? Why need you start bothering about +that in the middle of the night? + +LIZA. I want to know what I may take away with me. I don't want to be +accused of stealing. + +HIGGINS [now deeply wounded] Stealing! You shouldn't have said that, +Eliza. That shows a want of feeling. + +LIZA. I'm sorry. I'm only a common ignorant girl; and in my station I +have to be careful. There can't be any feelings between the like of you +and the like of me. Please will you tell me what belongs to me and what +doesn't? + +HIGGINS [very sulky] You may take the whole damned houseful if you +like. Except the jewels. They're hired. Will that satisfy you? [He +turns on his heel and is about to go in extreme dudgeon]. + +LIZA [drinking in his emotion like nectar, and nagging him to provoke a +further supply] Stop, please. [She takes off her jewels]. Will you take +these to your room and keep them safe? I don't want to run the risk of +their being missing. + +HIGGINS [furious] Hand them over. [She puts them into his hands]. If +these belonged to me instead of to the jeweler, I'd ram them down your +ungrateful throat. [He perfunctorily thrusts them into his pockets, +unconsciously decorating himself with the protruding ends of the +chains]. + +LIZA [taking a ring off] This ring isn't the jeweler's: it's the one +you bought me in Brighton. I don't want it now. [Higgins dashes the +ring violently into the fireplace, and turns on her so threateningly +that she crouches over the piano with her hands over her face, and +exclaims] Don't you hit me. + +HIGGINS. Hit you! You infamous creature, how dare you accuse me of such +a thing? It is you who have hit me. You have wounded me to the heart. + +LIZA [thrilling with hidden joy] I'm glad. I've got a little of my own +back, anyhow. + +HIGGINS [with dignity, in his finest professional style] You have +caused me to lose my temper: a thing that has hardly ever happened to +me before. I prefer to say nothing more tonight. I am going to bed. + +LIZA [pertly] You'd better leave a note for Mrs. Pearce about the +coffee; for she won't be told by me. + +HIGGINS [formally] Damn Mrs. Pearce; and damn the coffee; and damn you; +and damn my own folly in having lavished MY hard-earned knowledge and +the treasure of my regard and intimacy on a heartless guttersnipe. [He +goes out with impressive decorum, and spoils it by slamming the door +savagely]. + +Eliza smiles for the first time; expresses her feelings by a wild +pantomime in which an imitation of Higgins's exit is confused with her +own triumph; and finally goes down on her knees on the hearthrug to +look for the ring. + + + +ACT V + +Mrs. Higgins's drawing-room. She is at her writing-table as before. The +parlor-maid comes in. + +THE PARLOR-MAID [at the door] Mr. Henry, mam, is downstairs with +Colonel Pickering. + +MRS. HIGGINS. Well, show them up. + +THE PARLOR-MAID. They're using the telephone, mam. Telephoning to the +police, I think. + +MRS. HIGGINS. What! + +THE PARLOR-MAID [coming further in and lowering her voice] Mr. Henry's +in a state, mam. I thought I'd better tell you. + +MRS. HIGGINS. If you had told me that Mr. Henry was not in a state it +would have been more surprising. Tell them to come up when they've +finished with the police. I suppose he's lost something. + +THE PARLOR-MAID. Yes, maam [going]. + +MRS. HIGGINS. Go upstairs and tell Miss Doolittle that Mr. Henry and +the Colonel are here. Ask her not to come down till I send for her. + +THE PARLOR-MAID. Yes, mam. + +Higgins bursts in. He is, as the parlor-maid has said, in a state. + +HIGGINS. Look here, mother: here's a confounded thing! + +MRS. HIGGINS. Yes, dear. Good-morning. [He checks his impatience and +kisses her, whilst the parlor-maid goes out]. What is it? + +HIGGINS. Eliza's bolted. + +MRS. HIGGINS [calmly continuing her writing] You must have frightened +her. + +HIGGINS. Frightened her! nonsense! She was left last night, as usual, +to turn out the lights and all that; and instead of going to bed she +changed her clothes and went right off: her bed wasn't slept in. She +came in a cab for her things before seven this morning; and that fool +Mrs. Pearce let her have them without telling me a word about it. What +am I to do? + +MRS. HIGGINS. Do without, I'm afraid, Henry. The girl has a perfect +right to leave if she chooses. + +HIGGINS [wandering distractedly across the room] But I can't find +anything. I don't know what appointments I've got. I'm-- [Pickering +comes in. Mrs. Higgins puts down her pen and turns away from the +writing-table]. + +PICKERING [shaking hands] Good-morning, Mrs. Higgins. Has Henry told +you? [He sits down on the ottoman]. + +HIGGINS. What does that ass of an inspector say? Have you offered a +reward? + +MRS. HIGGINS [rising in indignant amazement] You don't mean to say you +have set the police after Eliza? + +HIGGINS. Of course. What are the police for? What else could we do? [He +sits in the Elizabethan chair]. + +PICKERING. The inspector made a lot of difficulties. I really think he +suspected us of some improper purpose. + +MRS. HIGGINS. Well, of course he did. What right have you to go to the +police and give the girl's name as if she were a thief, or a lost +umbrella, or something? Really! [She sits down again, deeply vexed]. + +HIGGINS. But we want to find her. + +PICKERING. We can't let her go like this, you know, Mrs. Higgins. What +were we to do? + +MRS. HIGGINS. You have no more sense, either of you, than two children. +Why-- + +The parlor-maid comes in and breaks off the conversation. + +THE PARLOR-MAID. Mr. Henry: a gentleman wants to see you very +particular. He's been sent on from Wimpole Street. + +HIGGINS. Oh, bother! I can't see anyone now. Who is it? + +THE PARLOR-MAID. A Mr. Doolittle, Sir. + +PICKERING. Doolittle! Do you mean the dustman? + +THE PARLOR-MAID. Dustman! Oh no, sir: a gentleman. + +HIGGINS [springing up excitedly] By George, Pick, it's some relative of +hers that she's gone to. Somebody we know nothing about. [To the +parlor-maid] Send him up, quick. + +THE PARLOR-MAID. Yes, Sir. [She goes]. + +HIGGINS [eagerly, going to his mother] Genteel relatives! now we shall +hear something. [He sits down in the Chippendale chair]. + +MRS. HIGGINS. Do you know any of her people? + +PICKERING. Only her father: the fellow we told you about. + +THE PARLOR-MAID [announcing] Mr. Doolittle. [She withdraws]. + +Doolittle enters. He is brilliantly dressed in a new fashionable +frock-coat, with white waistcoat and grey trousers. A flower in his +buttonhole, a dazzling silk hat, and patent leather shoes complete the +effect. He is too concerned with the business he has come on to notice +Mrs. Higgins. He walks straight to Higgins, and accosts him with +vehement reproach. + +DOOLITTLE [indicating his own person] See here! Do you see this? You +done this. + +HIGGINS. Done what, man? + +DOOLITTLE. This, I tell you. Look at it. Look at this hat. Look at this +coat. + +PICKERING. Has Eliza been buying you clothes? + +DOOLITTLE. Eliza! not she. Not half. Why would she buy me clothes? + +MRS. HIGGINS. Good-morning, Mr. Doolittle. Won't you sit down? + +DOOLITTLE [taken aback as he becomes conscious that he has forgotten +his hostess] Asking your pardon, ma'am. [He approaches her and shakes +her proffered hand]. Thank you. [He sits down on the ottoman, on +Pickering's right]. I am that full of what has happened to me that I +can't think of anything else. + +HIGGINS. What the dickens has happened to you? + +DOOLITTLE. I shouldn't mind if it had only happened to me: anything +might happen to anybody and nobody to blame but Providence, as you +might say. But this is something that you done to me: yes, you, Henry +Higgins. + +HIGGINS. Have you found Eliza? That's the point. + +DOOLITTLE. Have you lost her? + +HIGGINS. Yes. + +DOOLITTLE. You have all the luck, you have. I ain't found her; but +she'll find me quick enough now after what you done to me. + +MRS. HIGGINS. But what has my son done to you, Mr. Doolittle? + +DOOLITTLE. Done to me! Ruined me. Destroyed my happiness. Tied me up +and delivered me into the hands of middle class morality. + +HIGGINS [rising intolerantly and standing over Doolittle] You're +raving. You're drunk. You're mad. I gave you five pounds. After that I +had two conversations with you, at half-a-crown an hour. I've never +seen you since. + +DOOLITTLE. Oh! Drunk! am I? Mad! am I? Tell me this. Did you or did you +not write a letter to an old blighter in America that was giving five +millions to found Moral Reform Societies all over the world, and that +wanted you to invent a universal language for him? + +HIGGINS. What! Ezra D. Wannafeller! He's dead. [He sits down again +carelessly]. + +DOOLITTLE. Yes: he's dead; and I'm done for. Now did you or did you not +write a letter to him to say that the most original moralist at present +in England, to the best of your knowledge, was Alfred Doolittle, a +common dustman. + +HIGGINS. Oh, after your last visit I remember making some silly joke of +the kind. + +DOOLITTLE. Ah! you may well call it a silly joke. It put the lid on me +right enough. Just give him the chance he wanted to show that Americans +is not like us: that they recognize and respect merit in every class of +life, however humble. Them words is in his blooming will, in which, +Henry Higgins, thanks to your silly joking, he leaves me a share in his +Pre-digested Cheese Trust worth three thousand a year on condition that +I lecture for his Wannafeller Moral Reform World League as often as +they ask me up to six times a year. + +HIGGINS. The devil he does! Whew! [Brightening suddenly] What a lark! + +PICKERING. A safe thing for you, Doolittle. They won't ask you twice. + +DOOLITTLE. It ain't the lecturing I mind. I'll lecture them blue in the +face, I will, and not turn a hair. It's making a gentleman of me that I +object to. Who asked him to make a gentleman of me? I was happy. I was +free. I touched pretty nigh everybody for money when I wanted it, same +as I touched you, Henry Higgins. Now I am worrited; tied neck and +heels; and everybody touches me for money. It's a fine thing for you, +says my solicitor. Is it? says I. You mean it's a good thing for you, I +says. When I was a poor man and had a solicitor once when they found a +pram in the dust cart, he got me off, and got shut of me and got me +shut of him as quick as he could. Same with the doctors: used to shove +me out of the hospital before I could hardly stand on my legs, and +nothing to pay. Now they finds out that I'm not a healthy man and can't +live unless they looks after me twice a day. In the house I'm not let +do a hand's turn for myself: somebody else must do it and touch me for +it. A year ago I hadn't a relative in the world except two or three +that wouldn't speak to me. Now I've fifty, and not a decent week's +wages among the lot of them. I have to live for others and not for +myself: that's middle class morality. You talk of losing Eliza. Don't +you be anxious: I bet she's on my doorstep by this: she that could +support herself easy by selling flowers if I wasn't respectable. And +the next one to touch me will be you, Henry Higgins. I'll have to learn +to speak middle class language from you, instead of speaking proper +English. That's where you'll come in; and I daresay that's what you +done it for. + +MRS. HIGGINS. But, my dear Mr. Doolittle, you need not suffer all this +if you are really in earnest. Nobody can force you to accept this +bequest. You can repudiate it. Isn't that so, Colonel Pickering? + +PICKERING. I believe so. + +DOOLITTLE [softening his manner in deference to her sex] That's the +tragedy of it, ma'am. It's easy to say chuck it; but I haven't the +nerve. Which one of us has? We're all intimidated. Intimidated, ma'am: +that's what we are. What is there for me if I chuck it but the +workhouse in my old age? I have to dye my hair already to keep my job +as a dustman. If I was one of the deserving poor, and had put by a bit, +I could chuck it; but then why should I, acause the deserving poor +might as well be millionaires for all the happiness they ever has. They +don't know what happiness is. But I, as one of the undeserving poor, +have nothing between me and the pauper's uniform but this here blasted +three thousand a year that shoves me into the middle class. (Excuse the +expression, ma'am: you'd use it yourself if you had my provocation). +They've got you every way you turn: it's a choice between the Skilly of +the workhouse and the Char Bydis of the middle class; and I haven't the +nerve for the workhouse. Intimidated: that's what I am. Broke. Bought +up. Happier men than me will call for my dust, and touch me for their +tip; and I'll look on helpless, and envy them. And that's what your son +has brought me to. [He is overcome by emotion]. + +MRS. HIGGINS. Well, I'm very glad you're not going to do anything +foolish, Mr. Doolittle. For this solves the problem of Eliza's future. +You can provide for her now. + +DOOLITTLE [with melancholy resignation] Yes, ma'am; I'm expected to +provide for everyone now, out of three thousand a year. + +HIGGINS [jumping up] Nonsense! he can't provide for her. He shan't +provide for her. She doesn't belong to him. I paid him five pounds for +her. Doolittle: either you're an honest man or a rogue. + +DOOLITTLE [tolerantly] A little of both, Henry, like the rest of us: a +little of both. + +HIGGINS. Well, you took that money for the girl; and you have no right +to take her as well. + +MRS. HIGGINS. Henry: don't be absurd. If you really want to know where +Eliza is, she is upstairs. + +HIGGINS [amazed] Upstairs!!! Then I shall jolly soon fetch her +downstairs. [He makes resolutely for the door]. + +MRS. HIGGINS [rising and following him] Be quiet, Henry. Sit down. + +HIGGINS. I-- + +MRS. HIGGINS. Sit down, dear; and listen to me. + +HIGGINS. Oh very well, very well, very well. [He throws himself +ungraciously on the ottoman, with his face towards the windows]. But I +think you might have told me this half an hour ago. + +MRS. HIGGINS. Eliza came to me this morning. She passed the night +partly walking about in a rage, partly trying to throw herself into the +river and being afraid to, and partly in the Carlton Hotel. She told me +of the brutal way you two treated her. + +HIGGINS [bounding up again] What! + +PICKERING [rising also] My dear Mrs. Higgins, she's been telling you +stories. We didn't treat her brutally. We hardly said a word to her; +and we parted on particularly good terms. [Turning on Higgins]. +Higgins: did you bully her after I went to bed? + +HIGGINS. Just the other way about. She threw my slippers in my face. +She behaved in the most outrageous way. I never gave her the slightest +provocation. The slippers came bang into my face the moment I entered +the room--before I had uttered a word. And used perfectly awful +language. + +PICKERING [astonished] But why? What did we do to her? + +MRS. HIGGINS. I think I know pretty well what you did. The girl is +naturally rather affectionate, I think. Isn't she, Mr. Doolittle? + +DOOLITTLE. Very tender-hearted, ma'am. Takes after me. + +MRS. HIGGINS. Just so. She had become attached to you both. She worked +very hard for you, Henry! I don't think you quite realize what anything +in the nature of brain work means to a girl like that. Well, it seems +that when the great day of trial came, and she did this wonderful thing +for you without making a single mistake, you two sat there and never +said a word to her, but talked together of how glad you were that it +was all over and how you had been bored with the whole thing. And then +you were surprised because she threw your slippers at you! _I_ should +have thrown the fire-irons at you. + +HIGGINS. We said nothing except that we were tired and wanted to go to +bed. Did we, Pick? + +PICKERING [shrugging his shoulders] That was all. + +MRS. HIGGINS [ironically] Quite sure? + +PICKERING. Absolutely. Really, that was all. + +MRS. HIGGINS. You didn't thank her, or pet her, or admire her, or tell +her how splendid she'd been. + +HIGGINS [impatiently] But she knew all about that. We didn't make +speeches to her, if that's what you mean. + +PICKERING [conscience stricken] Perhaps we were a little inconsiderate. +Is she very angry? + +MRS. HIGGINS [returning to her place at the writing-table] Well, I'm +afraid she won't go back to Wimpole Street, especially now that Mr. +Doolittle is able to keep up the position you have thrust on her; but +she says she is quite willing to meet you on friendly terms and to let +bygones be bygones. + +HIGGINS [furious] Is she, by George? Ho! + +MRS. HIGGINS. If you promise to behave yourself, Henry, I'll ask her to +come down. If not, go home; for you have taken up quite enough of my +time. + +HIGGINS. Oh, all right. Very well. Pick: you behave yourself. Let us +put on our best Sunday manners for this creature that we picked out of +the mud. [He flings himself sulkily into the Elizabethan chair]. + +DOOLITTLE [remonstrating] Now, now, Henry Higgins! have some +consideration for my feelings as a middle class man. + +MRS. HIGGINS. Remember your promise, Henry. [She presses the +bell-button on the writing-table]. Mr. Doolittle: will you be so good +as to step out on the balcony for a moment. I don't want Eliza to have +the shock of your news until she has made it up with these two +gentlemen. Would you mind? + +DOOLITTLE. As you wish, lady. Anything to help Henry to keep her off my +hands. [He disappears through the window]. + +The parlor-maid answers the bell. Pickering sits down in Doolittle's +place. + +MRS. HIGGINS. Ask Miss Doolittle to come down, please. + +THE PARLOR-MAID. Yes, mam. [She goes out]. + +MRS. HIGGINS. Now, Henry: be good. + +HIGGINS. I am behaving myself perfectly. + +PICKERING. He is doing his best, Mrs. Higgins. + +A pause. Higgins throws back his head; stretches out his legs; and +begins to whistle. + +MRS. HIGGINS. Henry, dearest, you don't look at all nice in that +attitude. + +HIGGINS [pulling himself together] I was not trying to look nice, +mother. + +MRS. HIGGINS. It doesn't matter, dear. I only wanted to make you speak. + +HIGGINS. Why? + +MRS. HIGGINS. Because you can't speak and whistle at the same time. + +Higgins groans. Another very trying pause. + +HIGGINS [springing up, out of patience] Where the devil is that girl? +Are we to wait here all day? + +Eliza enters, sunny, self-possessed, and giving a staggeringly +convincing exhibition of ease of manner. She carries a little +work-basket, and is very much at home. Pickering is too much taken +aback to rise. + +LIZA. How do you do, Professor Higgins? Are you quite well? + +HIGGINS [choking] Am I-- [He can say no more]. + +LIZA. But of course you are: you are never ill. So glad to see you +again, Colonel Pickering. [He rises hastily; and they shake hands]. +Quite chilly this morning, isn't it? [She sits down on his left. He +sits beside her]. + +HIGGINS. Don't you dare try this game on me. I taught it to you; and it +doesn't take me in. Get up and come home; and don't be a fool. + +Eliza takes a piece of needlework from her basket, and begins to stitch +at it, without taking the least notice of this outburst. + +MRS. HIGGINS. Very nicely put, indeed, Henry. No woman could resist +such an invitation. + +HIGGINS. You let her alone, mother. Let her speak for herself. You will +jolly soon see whether she has an idea that I haven't put into her head +or a word that I haven't put into her mouth. I tell you I have created +this thing out of the squashed cabbage leaves of Covent Garden; and now +she pretends to play the fine lady with me. + +MRS. HIGGINS [placidly] Yes, dear; but you'll sit down, won't you? + +Higgins sits down again, savagely. + +LIZA [to Pickering, taking no apparent notice of Higgins, and working +away deftly] Will you drop me altogether now that the experiment is +over, Colonel Pickering? + +PICKERING. Oh don't. You mustn't think of it as an experiment. It +shocks me, somehow. + +LIZA. Oh, I'm only a squashed cabbage leaf. + +PICKERING [impulsively] No. + +LIZA [continuing quietly]--but I owe so much to you that I should be +very unhappy if you forgot me. + +PICKERING. It's very kind of you to say so, Miss Doolittle. + +LIZA. It's not because you paid for my dresses. I know you are generous +to everybody with money. But it was from you that I learnt really nice +manners; and that is what makes one a lady, isn't it? You see it was so +very difficult for me with the example of Professor Higgins always +before me. I was brought up to be just like him, unable to control +myself, and using bad language on the slightest provocation. And I +should never have known that ladies and gentlemen didn't behave like +that if you hadn't been there. + +HIGGINS. Well!! + +PICKERING. Oh, that's only his way, you know. He doesn't mean it. + +LIZA. Oh, I didn't mean it either, when I was a flower girl. It was +only my way. But you see I did it; and that's what makes the difference +after all. + +PICKERING. No doubt. Still, he taught you to speak; and I couldn't have +done that, you know. + +LIZA [trivially] Of course: that is his profession. + +HIGGINS. Damnation! + +LIZA [continuing] It was just like learning to dance in the fashionable +way: there was nothing more than that in it. But do you know what began +my real education? + +PICKERING. What? + +LIZA [stopping her work for a moment] Your calling me Miss Doolittle +that day when I first came to Wimpole Street. That was the beginning of +self-respect for me. [She resumes her stitching]. And there were a +hundred little things you never noticed, because they came naturally to +you. Things about standing up and taking off your hat and opening +doors-- + +PICKERING. Oh, that was nothing. + +LIZA. Yes: things that showed you thought and felt about me as if I +were something better than a scullerymaid; though of course I know you +would have been just the same to a scullery-maid if she had been let in +the drawing-room. You never took off your boots in the dining room when +I was there. + +PICKERING. You mustn't mind that. Higgins takes off his boots all over +the place. + +LIZA. I know. I am not blaming him. It is his way, isn't it? But it +made such a difference to me that you didn't do it. You see, really and +truly, apart from the things anyone can pick up (the dressing and the +proper way of speaking, and so on), the difference between a lady and a +flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she's treated. I shall +always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins, because he always treats +me as a flower girl, and always will; but I know I can be a lady to +you, because you always treat me as a lady, and always will. + +MRS. HIGGINS. Please don't grind your teeth, Henry. + +PICKERING. Well, this is really very nice of you, Miss Doolittle. + +LIZA. I should like you to call me Eliza, now, if you would. + +PICKERING. Thank you. Eliza, of course. + +LIZA. And I should like Professor Higgins to call me Miss Doolittle. + +HIGGINS. I'll see you damned first. + +MRS. HIGGINS. Henry! Henry! + +PICKERING [laughing] Why don't you slang back at him? Don't stand it. +It would do him a lot of good. + +LIZA. I can't. I could have done it once; but now I can't go back to +it. Last night, when I was wandering about, a girl spoke to me; and I +tried to get back into the old way with her; but it was no use. You +told me, you know, that when a child is brought to a foreign country, +it picks up the language in a few weeks, and forgets its own. Well, I +am a child in your country. I have forgotten my own language, and can +speak nothing but yours. That's the real break-off with the corner of +Tottenham Court Road. Leaving Wimpole Street finishes it. + +PICKERING [much alarmed] Oh! but you're coming back to Wimpole Street, +aren't you? You'll forgive Higgins? + +HIGGINS [rising] Forgive! Will she, by George! Let her go. Let her find +out how she can get on without us. She will relapse into the gutter in +three weeks without me at her elbow. + +Doolittle appears at the centre window. With a look of dignified +reproach at Higgins, he comes slowly and silently to his daughter, who, +with her back to the window, is unconscious of his approach. + +PICKERING. He's incorrigible, Eliza. You won't relapse, will you? + +LIZA. No: Not now. Never again. I have learnt my lesson. I don't +believe I could utter one of the old sounds if I tried. [Doolittle +touches her on her left shoulder. She drops her work, losing her +self-possession utterly at the spectacle of her father's splendor] +A--a--a--a--a--ah--ow--ooh! + +HIGGINS [with a crow of triumph] Aha! Just so. A--a--a--a--ahowooh! +A--a--a--a--ahowooh ! A--a--a--a--ahowooh! Victory! Victory! [He throws +himself on the divan, folding his arms, and spraddling arrogantly]. + +DOOLITTLE. Can you blame the girl? Don't look at me like that, Eliza. +It ain't my fault. I've come into money. + +LIZA. You must have touched a millionaire this time, dad. + +DOOLITTLE. I have. But I'm dressed something special today. I'm going +to St. George's, Hanover Square. Your stepmother is going to marry me. + +LIZA [angrily] You're going to let yourself down to marry that low +common woman! + +PICKERING [quietly] He ought to, Eliza. [To Doolittle] Why has she +changed her mind? + +DOOLITTLE [sadly] Intimidated, Governor. Intimidated. Middle class +morality claims its victim. Won't you put on your hat, Liza, and come +and see me turned off? + +LIZA. If the Colonel says I must, I--I'll [almost sobbing] I'll demean +myself. And get insulted for my pains, like enough. + +DOOLITTLE. Don't be afraid: she never comes to words with anyone now, +poor woman! respectability has broke all the spirit out of her. + +PICKERING [squeezing Eliza's elbow gently] Be kind to them, Eliza. Make +the best of it. + +LIZA [forcing a little smile for him through her vexation] Oh well, +just to show there's no ill feeling. I'll be back in a moment. [She +goes out]. + +DOOLITTLE [sitting down beside Pickering] I feel uncommon nervous about +the ceremony, Colonel. I wish you'd come and see me through it. + +PICKERING. But you've been through it before, man. You were married to +Eliza's mother. + +DOOLITTLE. Who told you that, Colonel? + +PICKERING. Well, nobody told me. But I concluded naturally-- + +DOOLITTLE. No: that ain't the natural way, Colonel: it's only the +middle class way. My way was always the undeserving way. But don't say +nothing to Eliza. She don't know: I always had a delicacy about telling +her. + +PICKERING. Quite right. We'll leave it so, if you don't mind. + +DOOLITTLE. And you'll come to the church, Colonel, and put me through +straight? + +PICKERING. With pleasure. As far as a bachelor can. + +MRS. HIGGINS. May I come, Mr. Doolittle? I should be very sorry to miss +your wedding. + +DOOLITTLE. I should indeed be honored by your condescension, ma'am; and +my poor old woman would take it as a tremenjous compliment. She's been +very low, thinking of the happy days that are no more. + +MRS. HIGGINS [rising] I'll order the carriage and get ready. [The men +rise, except Higgins]. I shan't be more than fifteen minutes. [As she +goes to the door Eliza comes in, hatted and buttoning her gloves]. I'm +going to the church to see your father married, Eliza. You had better +come in the brougham with me. Colonel Pickering can go on with the +bridegroom. + +Mrs. Higgins goes out. Eliza comes to the middle of the room between +the centre window and the ottoman. Pickering joins her. + +DOOLITTLE. Bridegroom! What a word! It makes a man realize his +position, somehow. [He takes up his hat and goes towards the door]. + +PICKERING. Before I go, Eliza, do forgive him and come back to us. + +LIZA. I don't think papa would allow me. Would you, dad? + +DOOLITTLE [sad but magnanimous] They played you off very cunning, +Eliza, them two sportsmen. If it had been only one of them, you could +have nailed him. But you see, there was two; and one of them chaperoned +the other, as you might say. [To Pickering] It was artful of you, +Colonel; but I bear no malice: I should have done the same myself. I +been the victim of one woman after another all my life; and I don't +grudge you two getting the better of Eliza. I shan't interfere. It's +time for us to go, Colonel. So long, Henry. See you in St. George's, +Eliza. [He goes out]. + +PICKERING [coaxing] Do stay with us, Eliza. [He follows Doolittle]. + +Eliza goes out on the balcony to avoid being alone with Higgins. He +rises and joins her there. She immediately comes back into the room and +makes for the door; but he goes along the balcony quickly and gets his +back to the door before she reaches it. + +HIGGINS. Well, Eliza, you've had a bit of your own back, as you call +it. Have you had enough? and are you going to be reasonable? Or do you +want any more? + +LIZA. You want me back only to pick up your slippers and put up with +your tempers and fetch and carry for you. + +HIGGINS. I haven't said I wanted you back at all. + +LIZA. Oh, indeed. Then what are we talking about? + +HIGGINS. About you, not about me. If you come back I shall treat you +just as I have always treated you. I can't change my nature; and I +don't intend to change my manners. My manners are exactly the same as +Colonel Pickering's. + +LIZA. That's not true. He treats a flower girl as if she was a duchess. + +HIGGINS. And I treat a duchess as if she was a flower girl. + +LIZA. I see. [She turns away composedly, and sits on the ottoman, +facing the window]. The same to everybody. + +HIGGINS. Just so. + +LIZA. Like father. + +HIGGINS [grinning, a little taken down] Without accepting the +comparison at all points, Eliza, it's quite true that your father is +not a snob, and that he will be quite at home in any station of life to +which his eccentric destiny may call him. [Seriously] The great secret, +Eliza, is not having bad manners or good manners or any other +particular sort of manners, but having the same manner for all human +souls: in short, behaving as if you were in Heaven, where there are no +third-class carriages, and one soul is as good as another. + +LIZA. Amen. You are a born preacher. + +HIGGINS [irritated] The question is not whether I treat you rudely, but +whether you ever heard me treat anyone else better. + +LIZA [with sudden sincerity] I don't care how you treat me. I don't +mind your swearing at me. I don't mind a black eye: I've had one before +this. But [standing up and facing him] I won't be passed over. + +HIGGINS. Then get out of my way; for I won't stop for you. You talk +about me as if I were a motor bus. + +LIZA. So you are a motor bus: all bounce and go, and no consideration +for anyone. But I can do without you: don't think I can't. + +HIGGINS. I know you can. I told you you could. + +LIZA [wounded, getting away from him to the other side of the ottoman +with her face to the hearth] I know you did, you brute. You wanted to +get rid of me. + +HIGGINS. Liar. + +LIZA. Thank you. [She sits down with dignity]. + +HIGGINS. You never asked yourself, I suppose, whether I could do +without YOU. + +LIZA [earnestly] Don't you try to get round me. You'll HAVE to do +without me. + +HIGGINS [arrogant] I can do without anybody. I have my own soul: my own +spark of divine fire. But [with sudden humility] I shall miss you, +Eliza. [He sits down near her on the ottoman]. I have learnt something +from your idiotic notions: I confess that humbly and gratefully. And I +have grown accustomed to your voice and appearance. I like them, rather. + +LIZA. Well, you have both of them on your gramophone and in your book +of photographs. When you feel lonely without me, you can turn the +machine on. It's got no feelings to hurt. + +HIGGINS. I can't turn your soul on. Leave me those feelings; and you +can take away the voice and the face. They are not you. + +LIZA. Oh, you ARE a devil. You can twist the heart in a girl as easy as +some could twist her arms to hurt her. Mrs. Pearce warned me. Time and +again she has wanted to leave you; and you always got round her at the +last minute. And you don't care a bit for her. And you don't care a bit +for me. + +HIGGINS. I care for life, for humanity; and you are a part of it that +has come my way and been built into my house. What more can you or +anyone ask? + +LIZA. I won't care for anybody that doesn't care for me. + +HIGGINS. Commercial principles, Eliza. Like [reproducing her Covent +Garden pronunciation with professional exactness] s'yollin voylets +[selling violets], isn't it? + +LIZA. Don't sneer at me. It's mean to sneer at me. + +HIGGINS. I have never sneered in my life. Sneering doesn't become +either the human face or the human soul. I am expressing my righteous +contempt for Commercialism. I don't and won't trade in affection. You +call me a brute because you couldn't buy a claim on me by fetching my +slippers and finding my spectacles. You were a fool: I think a woman +fetching a man's slippers is a disgusting sight: did I ever fetch YOUR +slippers? I think a good deal more of you for throwing them in my face. +No use slaving for me and then saying you want to be cared for: who +cares for a slave? If you come back, come back for the sake of good +fellowship; for you'll get nothing else. You've had a thousand times as +much out of me as I have out of you; and if you dare to set up your +little dog's tricks of fetching and carrying slippers against my +creation of a Duchess Eliza, I'll slam the door in your silly face. + +LIZA. What did you do it for if you didn't care for me? + +HIGGINS [heartily] Why, because it was my job. + +LIZA. You never thought of the trouble it would make for me. + +HIGGINS. Would the world ever have been made if its maker had been +afraid of making trouble? Making life means making trouble. There's +only one way of escaping trouble; and that's killing things. Cowards, +you notice, are always shrieking to have troublesome people killed. + +LIZA. I'm no preacher: I don't notice things like that. I notice that +you don't notice me. + +HIGGINS [jumping up and walking about intolerantly] Eliza: you're an +idiot. I waste the treasures of my Miltonic mind by spreading them +before you. Once for all, understand that I go my way and do my work +without caring twopence what happens to either of us. I am not +intimidated, like your father and your stepmother. So you can come back +or go to the devil: which you please. + +LIZA. What am I to come back for? + +HIGGINS [bouncing up on his knees on the ottoman and leaning over it to +her] For the fun of it. That's why I took you on. + +LIZA [with averted face] And you may throw me out tomorrow if I don't +do everything you want me to? + +HIGGINS. Yes; and you may walk out tomorrow if I don't do everything +YOU want me to. + +LIZA. And live with my stepmother? + +HIGGINS. Yes, or sell flowers. + +LIZA. Oh! if I only COULD go back to my flower basket! I should be +independent of both you and father and all the world! Why did you take +my independence from me? Why did I give it up? I'm a slave now, for all +my fine clothes. + +HIGGINS. Not a bit. I'll adopt you as my daughter and settle money on +you if you like. Or would you rather marry Pickering? + +LIZA [looking fiercely round at him] I wouldn't marry YOU if you asked +me; and you're nearer my age than what he is. + +HIGGINS [gently] Than he is: not "than what he is." + +LIZA [losing her temper and rising] I'll talk as I like. You're not my +teacher now. + +HIGGINS [reflectively] I don't suppose Pickering would, though. He's as +confirmed an old bachelor as I am. + +LIZA. That's not what I want; and don't you think it. I've always had +chaps enough wanting me that way. Freddy Hill writes to me twice and +three times a day, sheets and sheets. + +HIGGINS [disagreeably surprised] Damn his impudence! [He recoils and +finds himself sitting on his heels]. + +LIZA. He has a right to if he likes, poor lad. And he does love me. + +HIGGINS [getting off the ottoman] You have no right to encourage him. + +LIZA. Every girl has a right to be loved. + +HIGGINS. What! By fools like that? + +LIZA. Freddy's not a fool. And if he's weak and poor and wants me, may +be he'd make me happier than my betters that bully me and don't want me. + +HIGGINS. Can he MAKE anything of you? That's the point. + +LIZA. Perhaps I could make something of him. But I never thought of us +making anything of one another; and you never think of anything else. I +only want to be natural. + +HIGGINS. In short, you want me to be as infatuated about you as Freddy? +Is that it? + +LIZA. No I don't. That's not the sort of feeling I want from you. And +don't you be too sure of yourself or of me. I could have been a bad +girl if I'd liked. I've seen more of some things than you, for all your +learning. Girls like me can drag gentlemen down to make love to them +easy enough. And they wish each other dead the next minute. + +HIGGINS. Of course they do. Then what in thunder are we quarrelling +about? + +LIZA [much troubled] I want a little kindness. I know I'm a common +ignorant girl, and you a book-learned gentleman; but I'm not dirt under +your feet. What I done [correcting herself] what I did was not for the +dresses and the taxis: I did it because we were pleasant together and I +come--came--to care for you; not to want you to make love to me, and +not forgetting the difference between us, but more friendly like. + +HIGGINS. Well, of course. That's just how I feel. And how Pickering +feels. Eliza: you're a fool. + +LIZA. That's not a proper answer to give me [she sinks on the chair at +the writing-table in tears]. + +HIGGINS. It's all you'll get until you stop being a common idiot. If +you're going to be a lady, you'll have to give up feeling neglected if +the men you know don't spend half their time snivelling over you and +the other half giving you black eyes. If you can't stand the coldness +of my sort of life, and the strain of it, go back to the gutter. Work +til you are more a brute than a human being; and then cuddle and +squabble and drink til you fall asleep. Oh, it's a fine life, the life +of the gutter. It's real: it's warm: it's violent: you can feel it +through the thickest skin: you can taste it and smell it without any +training or any work. Not like Science and Literature and Classical +Music and Philosophy and Art. You find me cold, unfeeling, selfish, +don't you? Very well: be off with you to the sort of people you like. +Marry some sentimental hog or other with lots of money, and a thick +pair of lips to kiss you with and a thick pair of boots to kick you +with. If you can't appreciate what you've got, you'd better get what +you can appreciate. + +LIZA [desperate] Oh, you are a cruel tyrant. I can't talk to you: you +turn everything against me: I'm always in the wrong. But you know very +well all the time that you're nothing but a bully. You know I can't go +back to the gutter, as you call it, and that I have no real friends in +the world but you and the Colonel. You know well I couldn't bear to +live with a low common man after you two; and it's wicked and cruel of +you to insult me by pretending I could. You think I must go back to +Wimpole Street because I have nowhere else to go but father's. But +don't you be too sure that you have me under your feet to be trampled +on and talked down. I'll marry Freddy, I will, as soon as he's able to +support me. + +HIGGINS [sitting down beside her] Rubbish! you shall marry an +ambassador. You shall marry the Governor-General of India or the +Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, or somebody who wants a deputy-queen. I'm +not going to have my masterpiece thrown away on Freddy. + +LIZA. You think I like you to say that. But I haven't forgot what you +said a minute ago; and I won't be coaxed round as if I was a baby or a +puppy. If I can't have kindness, I'll have independence. + +HIGGINS. Independence? That's middle class blasphemy. We are all +dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth. + +LIZA [rising determinedly] I'll let you see whether I'm dependent on +you. If you can preach, I can teach. I'll go and be a teacher. + +HIGGINS. What'll you teach, in heaven's name? + +LIZA. What you taught me. I'll teach phonetics. + +HIGGINS. Ha! Ha! Ha! + +LIZA. I'll offer myself as an assistant to Professor Nepean. + +HIGGINS [rising in a fury] What! That impostor! that humbug! that +toadying ignoramus! Teach him my methods! my discoveries! You take one +step in his direction and I'll wring your neck. [He lays hands on her]. +Do you hear? + +LIZA [defiantly non-resistant] Wring away. What do I care? I knew you'd +strike me some day. [He lets her go, stamping with rage at having +forgotten himself, and recoils so hastily that he stumbles back into +his seat on the ottoman]. Aha! Now I know how to deal with you. What a +fool I was not to think of it before! You can't take away the knowledge +you gave me. You said I had a finer ear than you. And I can be civil +and kind to people, which is more than you can. Aha! That's done you, +Henry Higgins, it has. Now I don't care that [snapping her fingers] for +your bullying and your big talk. I'll advertize it in the papers that +your duchess is only a flower girl that you taught, and that she'll +teach anybody to be a duchess just the same in six months for a +thousand guineas. Oh, when I think of myself crawling under your feet +and being trampled on and called names, when all the time I had only to +lift up my finger to be as good as you, I could just kick myself. + +HIGGINS [wondering at her] You damned impudent slut, you! But it's +better than snivelling; better than fetching slippers and finding +spectacles, isn't it? [Rising] By George, Eliza, I said I'd make a +woman of you; and I have. I like you like this. + +LIZA. Yes: you turn round and make up to me now that I'm not afraid of +you, and can do without you. + +HIGGINS. Of course I do, you little fool. Five minutes ago you were +like a millstone round my neck. Now you're a tower of strength: a +consort battleship. You and I and Pickering will be three old bachelors +together instead of only two men and a silly girl. + +Mrs. Higgins returns, dressed for the wedding. Eliza instantly becomes +cool and elegant. + +MRS. HIGGINS. The carriage is waiting, Eliza. Are you ready? + +LIZA. Quite. Is the Professor coming? + +MRS. HIGGINS. Certainly not. He can't behave himself in church. He +makes remarks out loud all the time on the clergyman's pronunciation. + +LIZA. Then I shall not see you again, Professor. Good bye. [She goes to +the door]. + +MRS. HIGGINS [coming to Higgins] Good-bye, dear. + +HIGGINS. Good-bye, mother. [He is about to kiss her, when he recollects +something]. Oh, by the way, Eliza, order a ham and a Stilton cheese, +will you? And buy me a pair of reindeer gloves, number eights, and a +tie to match that new suit of mine, at Eale & Binman's. You can choose +the color. [His cheerful, careless, vigorous voice shows that he is +incorrigible]. + +LIZA [disdainfully] Buy them yourself. [She sweeps out]. + +MRS. HIGGINS. I'm afraid you've spoiled that girl, Henry. But never +mind, dear: I'll buy you the tie and gloves. + +HIGGINS [sunnily] Oh, don't bother. She'll buy em all right enough. +Good-bye. + +They kiss. Mrs. Higgins runs out. Higgins, left alone, rattles his cash +in his pocket; chuckles; and disports himself in a highly +self-satisfied manner. + + *********************** + +The rest of the story need not be shown in action, and indeed, would +hardly need telling if our imaginations were not so enfeebled by their +lazy dependence on the ready-makes and reach-me-downs of the ragshop in +which Romance keeps its stock of "happy endings" to misfit all stories. +Now, the history of Eliza Doolittle, though called a romance because of +the transfiguration it records seems exceedingly improbable, is common +enough. Such transfigurations have been achieved by hundreds of +resolutely ambitious young women since Nell Gwynne set them the example +by playing queens and fascinating kings in the theatre in which she +began by selling oranges. Nevertheless, people in all directions have +assumed, for no other reason than that she became the heroine of a +romance, that she must have married the hero of it. This is unbearable, +not only because her little drama, if acted on such a thoughtless +assumption, must be spoiled, but because the true sequel is patent to +anyone with a sense of human nature in general, and of feminine +instinct in particular. + +Eliza, in telling Higgins she would not marry him if he asked her, was +not coquetting: she was announcing a well-considered decision. When a +bachelor interests, and dominates, and teaches, and becomes important +to a spinster, as Higgins with Eliza, she always, if she has character +enough to be capable of it, considers very seriously indeed whether she +will play for becoming that bachelor's wife, especially if he is so +little interested in marriage that a determined and devoted woman might +capture him if she set herself resolutely to do it. Her decision will +depend a good deal on whether she is really free to choose; and that, +again, will depend on her age and income. If she is at the end of her +youth, and has no security for her livelihood, she will marry him +because she must marry anybody who will provide for her. But at Eliza's +age a good-looking girl does not feel that pressure; she feels free to +pick and choose. She is therefore guided by her instinct in the matter. +Eliza's instinct tells her not to marry Higgins. It does not tell her +to give him up. It is not in the slightest doubt as to his remaining +one of the strongest personal interests in her life. It would be very +sorely strained if there was another woman likely to supplant her with +him. But as she feels sure of him on that last point, she has no doubt +at all as to her course, and would not have any, even if the difference +of twenty years in age, which seems so great to youth, did not exist +between them. + +As our own instincts are not appealed to by her conclusion, let us see +whether we cannot discover some reason in it. When Higgins excused his +indifference to young women on the ground that they had an irresistible +rival in his mother, he gave the clue to his inveterate +old-bachelordom. The case is uncommon only to the extent that +remarkable mothers are uncommon. If an imaginative boy has a +sufficiently rich mother who has intelligence, personal grace, dignity +of character without harshness, and a cultivated sense of the best art +of her time to enable her to make her house beautiful, she sets a +standard for him against which very few women can struggle, besides +effecting for him a disengagement of his affections, his sense of +beauty, and his idealism from his specifically sexual impulses. This +makes him a standing puzzle to the huge number of uncultivated people +who have been brought up in tasteless homes by commonplace or +disagreeable parents, and to whom, consequently, literature, painting, +sculpture, music, and affectionate personal relations come as modes of +sex if they come at all. The word passion means nothing else to them; +and that Higgins could have a passion for phonetics and idealize his +mother instead of Eliza, would seem to them absurd and unnatural. +Nevertheless, when we look round and see that hardly anyone is too ugly +or disagreeable to find a wife or a husband if he or she wants one, +whilst many old maids and bachelors are above the average in quality +and culture, we cannot help suspecting that the disentanglement of sex +from the associations with which it is so commonly confused, a +disentanglement which persons of genius achieve by sheer intellectual +analysis, is sometimes produced or aided by parental fascination. + +Now, though Eliza was incapable of thus explaining to herself Higgins's +formidable powers of resistance to the charm that prostrated Freddy at +the first glance, she was instinctively aware that she could never +obtain a complete grip of him, or come between him and his mother (the +first necessity of the married woman). To put it shortly, she knew that +for some mysterious reason he had not the makings of a married man in +him, according to her conception of a husband as one to whom she would +be his nearest and fondest and warmest interest. Even had there been no +mother-rival, she would still have refused to accept an interest in +herself that was secondary to philosophic interests. Had Mrs. Higgins +died, there would still have been Milton and the Universal Alphabet. +Landor's remark that to those who have the greatest power of loving, +love is a secondary affair, would not have recommended Landor to Eliza. +Put that along with her resentment of Higgins's domineering +superiority, and her mistrust of his coaxing cleverness in getting +round her and evading her wrath when he had gone too far with his +impetuous bullying, and you will see that Eliza's instinct had good +grounds for warning her not to marry her Pygmalion. + +And now, whom did Eliza marry? For if Higgins was a predestinate old +bachelor, she was most certainly not a predestinate old maid. Well, +that can be told very shortly to those who have not guessed it from the +indications she has herself given them. + +Almost immediately after Eliza is stung into proclaiming her considered +determination not to marry Higgins, she mentions the fact that young +Mr. Frederick Eynsford Hill is pouring out his love for her daily +through the post. Now Freddy is young, practically twenty years younger +than Higgins: he is a gentleman (or, as Eliza would qualify him, a +toff), and speaks like one; he is nicely dressed, is treated by the +Colonel as an equal, loves her unaffectedly, and is not her master, nor +ever likely to dominate her in spite of his advantage of social +standing. Eliza has no use for the foolish romantic tradition that all +women love to be mastered, if not actually bullied and beaten. "When +you go to women," says Nietzsche, "take your whip with you." Sensible +despots have never confined that precaution to women: they have taken +their whips with them when they have dealt with men, and been slavishly +idealized by the men over whom they have flourished the whip much more +than by women. No doubt there are slavish women as well as slavish men; +and women, like men, admire those that are stronger than themselves. +But to admire a strong person and to live under that strong person's +thumb are two different things. The weak may not be admired and +hero-worshipped; but they are by no means disliked or shunned; and they +never seem to have the least difficulty in marrying people who are too +good for them. They may fail in emergencies; but life is not one long +emergency: it is mostly a string of situations for which no exceptional +strength is needed, and with which even rather weak people can cope if +they have a stronger partner to help them out. Accordingly, it is a +truth everywhere in evidence that strong people, masculine or feminine, +not only do not marry stronger people, but do not show any preference +for them in selecting their friends. When a lion meets another with a +louder roar "the first lion thinks the last a bore." The man or woman +who feels strong enough for two, seeks for every other quality in a +partner than strength. + +The converse is also true. Weak people want to marry strong people who +do not frighten them too much; and this often leads them to make the +mistake we describe metaphorically as "biting off more than they can +chew." They want too much for too little; and when the bargain is +unreasonable beyond all bearing, the union becomes impossible: it ends +in the weaker party being either discarded or borne as a cross, which +is worse. People who are not only weak, but silly or obtuse as well, +are often in these difficulties. + +This being the state of human affairs, what is Eliza fairly sure to do +when she is placed between Freddy and Higgins? Will she look forward to +a lifetime of fetching Higgins's slippers or to a lifetime of Freddy +fetching hers? There can be no doubt about the answer. Unless Freddy is +biologically repulsive to her, and Higgins biologically attractive to a +degree that overwhelms all her other instincts, she will, if she +marries either of them, marry Freddy. + +And that is just what Eliza did. + +Complications ensued; but they were economic, not romantic. Freddy had +no money and no occupation. His mother's jointure, a last relic of the +opulence of Largelady Park, had enabled her to struggle along in +Earlscourt with an air of gentility, but not to procure any serious +secondary education for her children, much less give the boy a +profession. A clerkship at thirty shillings a week was beneath Freddy's +dignity, and extremely distasteful to him besides. His prospects +consisted of a hope that if he kept up appearances somebody would do +something for him. The something appeared vaguely to his imagination as +a private secretaryship or a sinecure of some sort. To his mother it +perhaps appeared as a marriage to some lady of means who could not +resist her boy's niceness. Fancy her feelings when he married a flower +girl who had become declassee under extraordinary circumstances which +were now notorious! + +It is true that Eliza's situation did not seem wholly ineligible. Her +father, though formerly a dustman, and now fantastically disclassed, +had become extremely popular in the smartest society by a social talent +which triumphed over every prejudice and every disadvantage. Rejected +by the middle class, which he loathed, he had shot up at once into the +highest circles by his wit, his dustmanship (which he carried like a +banner), and his Nietzschean transcendence of good and evil. At +intimate ducal dinners he sat on the right hand of the Duchess; and in +country houses he smoked in the pantry and was made much of by the +butler when he was not feeding in the dining-room and being consulted +by cabinet ministers. But he found it almost as hard to do all this on +four thousand a year as Mrs. Eynsford Hill to live in Earlscourt on an +income so pitiably smaller that I have not the heart to disclose its +exact figure. He absolutely refused to add the last straw to his burden +by contributing to Eliza's support. + +Thus Freddy and Eliza, now Mr. and Mrs. Eynsford Hill, would have spent +a penniless honeymoon but for a wedding present of 500 pounds from the +Colonel to Eliza. It lasted a long time because Freddy did not know how +to spend money, never having had any to spend, and Eliza, socially +trained by a pair of old bachelors, wore her clothes as long as they +held together and looked pretty, without the least regard to their +being many months out of fashion. Still, 500 pounds will not last two +young people for ever; and they both knew, and Eliza felt as well, that +they must shift for themselves in the end. She could quarter herself on +Wimpole Street because it had come to be her home; but she was quite +aware that she ought not to quarter Freddy there, and that it would not +be good for his character if she did. + +Not that the Wimpole Street bachelors objected. When she consulted +them, Higgins declined to be bothered about her housing problem when +that solution was so simple. Eliza's desire to have Freddy in the house +with her seemed of no more importance than if she had wanted an extra +piece of bedroom furniture. Pleas as to Freddy's character, and the +moral obligation on him to earn his own living, were lost on Higgins. +He denied that Freddy had any character, and declared that if he tried +to do any useful work some competent person would have the trouble of +undoing it: a procedure involving a net loss to the community, and +great unhappiness to Freddy himself, who was obviously intended by +Nature for such light work as amusing Eliza, which, Higgins declared, +was a much more useful and honorable occupation than working in the +city. When Eliza referred again to her project of teaching phonetics, +Higgins abated not a jot of his violent opposition to it. He said she +was not within ten years of being qualified to meddle with his pet +subject; and as it was evident that the Colonel agreed with him, she +felt she could not go against them in this grave matter, and that she +had no right, without Higgins's consent, to exploit the knowledge he +had given her; for his knowledge seemed to her as much his private +property as his watch: Eliza was no communist. Besides, she was +superstitiously devoted to them both, more entirely and frankly after +her marriage than before it. + +It was the Colonel who finally solved the problem, which had cost him +much perplexed cogitation. He one day asked Eliza, rather shyly, +whether she had quite given up her notion of keeping a flower shop. She +replied that she had thought of it, but had put it out of her head, +because the Colonel had said, that day at Mrs. Higgins's, that it would +never do. The Colonel confessed that when he said that, he had not +quite recovered from the dazzling impression of the day before. They +broke the matter to Higgins that evening. The sole comment vouchsafed +by him very nearly led to a serious quarrel with Eliza. It was to the +effect that she would have in Freddy an ideal errand boy. + +Freddy himself was next sounded on the subject. He said he had been +thinking of a shop himself; though it had presented itself to his +pennilessness as a small place in which Eliza should sell tobacco at +one counter whilst he sold newspapers at the opposite one. But he +agreed that it would be extraordinarily jolly to go early every morning +with Eliza to Covent Garden and buy flowers on the scene of their first +meeting: a sentiment which earned him many kisses from his wife. He +added that he had always been afraid to propose anything of the sort, +because Clara would make an awful row about a step that must damage her +matrimonial chances, and his mother could not be expected to like it +after clinging for so many years to that step of the social ladder on +which retail trade is impossible. + +This difficulty was removed by an event highly unexpected by Freddy's +mother. Clara, in the course of her incursions into those artistic +circles which were the highest within her reach, discovered that her +conversational qualifications were expected to include a grounding in +the novels of Mr. H.G. Wells. She borrowed them in various directions +so energetically that she swallowed them all within two months. The +result was a conversion of a kind quite common today. A modern Acts of +the Apostles would fill fifty whole Bibles if anyone were capable of +writing it. + +Poor Clara, who appeared to Higgins and his mother as a disagreeable +and ridiculous person, and to her own mother as in some inexplicable +way a social failure, had never seen herself in either light; for, +though to some extent ridiculed and mimicked in West Kensington like +everybody else there, she was accepted as a rational and normal--or +shall we say inevitable?--sort of human being. At worst they called her +The Pusher; but to them no more than to herself had it ever occurred +that she was pushing the air, and pushing it in a wrong direction. +Still, she was not happy. She was growing desperate. Her one asset, the +fact that her mother was what the Epsom greengrocer called a carriage +lady had no exchange value, apparently. It had prevented her from +getting educated, because the only education she could have afforded +was education with the Earlscourt green grocer's daughter. It had led +her to seek the society of her mother's class; and that class simply +would not have her, because she was much poorer than the greengrocer, +and, far from being able to afford a maid, could not afford even a +housemaid, and had to scrape along at home with an illiberally treated +general servant. Under such circumstances nothing could give her an air +of being a genuine product of Largelady Park. And yet its tradition +made her regard a marriage with anyone within her reach as an +unbearable humiliation. Commercial people and professional people in a +small way were odious to her. She ran after painters and novelists; but +she did not charm them; and her bold attempts to pick up and practise +artistic and literary talk irritated them. She was, in short, an utter +failure, an ignorant, incompetent, pretentious, unwelcome, penniless, +useless little snob; and though she did not admit these +disqualifications (for nobody ever faces unpleasant truths of this kind +until the possibility of a way out dawns on them) she felt their +effects too keenly to be satisfied with her position. + +Clara had a startling eyeopener when, on being suddenly wakened to +enthusiasm by a girl of her own age who dazzled her and produced in her +a gushing desire to take her for a model, and gain her friendship, she +discovered that this exquisite apparition had graduated from the gutter +in a few months' time. It shook her so violently, that when Mr. H. G. +Wells lifted her on the point of his puissant pen, and placed her at +the angle of view from which the life she was leading and the society +to which she clung appeared in its true relation to real human needs +and worthy social structure, he effected a conversion and a conviction +of sin comparable to the most sensational feats of General Booth or +Gypsy Smith. Clara's snobbery went bang. Life suddenly began to move +with her. Without knowing how or why, she began to make friends and +enemies. Some of the acquaintances to whom she had been a tedious or +indifferent or ridiculous affliction, dropped her: others became +cordial. To her amazement she found that some "quite nice" people were +saturated with Wells, and that this accessibility to ideas was the +secret of their niceness. People she had thought deeply religious, and +had tried to conciliate on that tack with disastrous results, suddenly +took an interest in her, and revealed a hostility to conventional +religion which she had never conceived possible except among the most +desperate characters. They made her read Galsworthy; and Galsworthy +exposed the vanity of Largelady Park and finished her. It exasperated +her to think that the dungeon in which she had languished for so many +unhappy years had been unlocked all the time, and that the impulses she +had so carefully struggled with and stifled for the sake of keeping +well with society, were precisely those by which alone she could have +come into any sort of sincere human contact. In the radiance of these +discoveries, and the tumult of their reaction, she made a fool of +herself as freely and conspicuously as when she so rashly adopted +Eliza's expletive in Mrs. Higgins's drawing-room; for the new-born +Wellsian had to find her bearings almost as ridiculously as a baby; but +nobody hates a baby for its ineptitudes, or thinks the worse of it for +trying to eat the matches; and Clara lost no friends by her follies. +They laughed at her to her face this time; and she had to defend +herself and fight it out as best she could. + +When Freddy paid a visit to Earlscourt (which he never did when he +could possibly help it) to make the desolating announcement that he and +his Eliza were thinking of blackening the Largelady scutcheon by +opening a shop, he found the little household already convulsed by a +prior announcement from Clara that she also was going to work in an old +furniture shop in Dover Street, which had been started by a fellow +Wellsian. This appointment Clara owed, after all, to her old social +accomplishment of Push. She had made up her mind that, cost what it +might, she would see Mr. Wells in the flesh; and she had achieved her +end at a garden party. She had better luck than so rash an enterprise +deserved. Mr. Wells came up to her expectations. Age had not withered +him, nor could custom stale his infinite variety in half an hour. His +pleasant neatness and compactness, his small hands and feet, his +teeming ready brain, his unaffected accessibility, and a certain fine +apprehensiveness which stamped him as susceptible from his topmost hair +to his tipmost toe, proved irresistible. Clara talked of nothing else +for weeks and weeks afterwards. And as she happened to talk to the lady +of the furniture shop, and that lady also desired above all things to +know Mr. Wells and sell pretty things to him, she offered Clara a job +on the chance of achieving that end through her. + +And so it came about that Eliza's luck held, and the expected +opposition to the flower shop melted away. The shop is in the arcade of +a railway station not very far from the Victoria and Albert Museum; and +if you live in that neighborhood you may go there any day and buy a +buttonhole from Eliza. + +Now here is a last opportunity for romance. Would you not like to be +assured that the shop was an immense success, thanks to Eliza's charms +and her early business experience in Covent Garden? Alas! the truth is +the truth: the shop did not pay for a long time, simply because Eliza +and her Freddy did not know how to keep it. True, Eliza had not to +begin at the very beginning: she knew the names and prices of the +cheaper flowers; and her elation was unbounded when she found that +Freddy, like all youths educated at cheap, pretentious, and thoroughly +inefficient schools, knew a little Latin. It was very little, but +enough to make him appear to her a Porson or Bentley, and to put him at +his ease with botanical nomenclature. Unfortunately he knew nothing +else; and Eliza, though she could count money up to eighteen shillings +or so, and had acquired a certain familiarity with the language of +Milton from her struggles to qualify herself for winning Higgins's bet, +could not write out a bill without utterly disgracing the +establishment. Freddy's power of stating in Latin that Balbus built a +wall and that Gaul was divided into three parts did not carry with it +the slightest knowledge of accounts or business: Colonel Pickering had +to explain to him what a cheque book and a bank account meant. And the +pair were by no means easily teachable. Freddy backed up Eliza in her +obstinate refusal to believe that they could save money by engaging a +bookkeeper with some knowledge of the business. How, they argued, could +you possibly save money by going to extra expense when you already +could not make both ends meet? But the Colonel, after making the ends +meet over and over again, at last gently insisted; and Eliza, humbled +to the dust by having to beg from him so often, and stung by the +uproarious derision of Higgins, to whom the notion of Freddy succeeding +at anything was a joke that never palled, grasped the fact that +business, like phonetics, has to be learned. + +On the piteous spectacle of the pair spending their evenings in +shorthand schools and polytechnic classes, learning bookkeeping and +typewriting with incipient junior clerks, male and female, from the +elementary schools, let me not dwell. There were even classes at the +London School of Economics, and a humble personal appeal to the +director of that institution to recommend a course bearing on the +flower business. He, being a humorist, explained to them the method of +the celebrated Dickensian essay on Chinese Metaphysics by the gentleman +who read an article on China and an article on Metaphysics and combined +the information. He suggested that they should combine the London +School with Kew Gardens. Eliza, to whom the procedure of the Dickensian +gentleman seemed perfectly correct (as in fact it was) and not in the +least funny (which was only her ignorance) took his advice with entire +gravity. But the effort that cost her the deepest humiliation was a +request to Higgins, whose pet artistic fancy, next to Milton's verse, +was calligraphy, and who himself wrote a most beautiful Italian hand, +that he would teach her to write. He declared that she was congenitally +incapable of forming a single letter worthy of the least of Milton's +words; but she persisted; and again he suddenly threw himself into the +task of teaching her with a combination of stormy intensity, +concentrated patience, and occasional bursts of interesting +disquisition on the beauty and nobility, the august mission and +destiny, of human handwriting. Eliza ended by acquiring an extremely +uncommercial script which was a positive extension of her personal +beauty, and spending three times as much on stationery as anyone else +because certain qualities and shapes of paper became indispensable to +her. She could not even address an envelope in the usual way because it +made the margins all wrong. + +Their commercial school days were a period of disgrace and despair for +the young couple. They seemed to be learning nothing about flower +shops. At last they gave it up as hopeless, and shook the dust of the +shorthand schools, and the polytechnics, and the London School of +Economics from their feet for ever. Besides, the business was in some +mysterious way beginning to take care of itself. They had somehow +forgotten their objections to employing other people. They came to the +conclusion that their own way was the best, and that they had really a +remarkable talent for business. The Colonel, who had been compelled for +some years to keep a sufficient sum on current account at his bankers +to make up their deficits, found that the provision was unnecessary: +the young people were prospering. It is true that there was not quite +fair play between them and their competitors in trade. Their week-ends +in the country cost them nothing, and saved them the price of their +Sunday dinners; for the motor car was the Colonel's; and he and Higgins +paid the hotel bills. Mr. F. Hill, florist and greengrocer (they soon +discovered that there was money in asparagus; and asparagus led to +other vegetables), had an air which stamped the business as classy; and +in private life he was still Frederick Eynsford Hill, Esquire. Not that +there was any swank about him: nobody but Eliza knew that he had been +christened Frederick Challoner. Eliza herself swanked like anything. + +That is all. That is how it has turned out. It is astonishing how much +Eliza still manages to meddle in the housekeeping at Wimpole Street in +spite of the shop and her own family. And it is notable that though she +never nags her husband, and frankly loves the Colonel as if she were +his favorite daughter, she has never got out of the habit of nagging +Higgins that was established on the fatal night when she won his bet +for him. She snaps his head off on the faintest provocation, or on +none. He no longer dares to tease her by assuming an abysmal +inferiority of Freddy's mind to his own. He storms and bullies and +derides; but she stands up to him so ruthlessly that the Colonel has to +ask her from time to time to be kinder to Higgins; and it is the only +request of his that brings a mulish expression into her face. Nothing +but some emergency or calamity great enough to break down all likes and +dislikes, and throw them both back on their common humanity--and may +they be spared any such trial!--will ever alter this. She knows that +Higgins does not need her, just as her father did not need her. The +very scrupulousness with which he told her that day that he had become +used to having her there, and dependent on her for all sorts of little +services, and that he should miss her if she went away (it would never +have occurred to Freddy or the Colonel to say anything of the sort) +deepens her inner certainty that she is "no more to him than them +slippers", yet she has a sense, too, that his indifference is deeper +than the infatuation of commoner souls. She is immensely interested in +him. She has even secret mischievous moments in which she wishes she +could get him alone, on a desert island, away from all ties and with +nobody else in the world to consider, and just drag him off his +pedestal and see him making love like any common man. We all have +private imaginations of that sort. But when it comes to business, to +the life that she really leads as distinguished from the life of dreams +and fancies, she likes Freddy and she likes the Colonel; and she does +not like Higgins and Mr. Doolittle. Galatea never does quite like +Pygmalion: his relation to her is too godlike to be altogether +agreeable. + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PYGMALION *** + +***** This file should be named 3825.txt or 3825.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/2/3825/ + +Produced by Eve Sobol. HTML version by Al Haines. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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