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. Wel