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