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 h