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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.
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