nisters. 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