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.

Mrs. Higgins.  Very nicely put, indeed, Henry.  No woman could resist such an invitation.

Higgins.  You let her alone, mother.  Let her speak for herself.  You will jolly soon see whether she has an idea that I haven’t put into her head or a word that I haven’t put into her mouth.  I tell you I have created this thing out of the squashed cabbage leaves of Covent Garden; and now she pretends to play the fine lady with me.

Mrs. Higgins [placidly] Yes, dear; but you’ll sit down, won’t you?

Higgins sits down again, savagely.

Liza [to Pickering, taking no apparent notice of Higgins, and working away deftly] Will you drop me altogether now that the experiment is over, Colonel Pickering?

Pickering.  Oh don’t.  You mustn’t think of it as an experiment.  It shocks me, somehow.

Liza.  Oh, I’m only a squashed cabbage leaf.

Pickering [impulsively] No.

Liza [continuing quietly]—­but I owe so much to you that I should be very unhappy if you forgot me.

Pickering.  It’s very kind of you to say so, Miss Doolittle.

Liza.  It’s not because you paid for my dresses.  I know you are generous to everybody with money.  But it was from you that I learnt really nice manners; and that is what makes one a lady, isn’t it?  You see it was so very difficult for me with the example of Professor Higgins always before me.  I was brought up to be just like him, unable to control myself, and using bad language on the slightest provocation.  And I should never have known that ladies and gentlemen didn’t behave like that if you hadn’t been there.

Higgins.  Well!!

Pickering.  Oh, that’s only his way, you know.  He doesn’t mean it.

Liza.  Oh, I didn’t mean it either, when I was a flower girl.  It was only my way.  But you see I did it; and that’s what makes the difference after all.

Pickering.  No doubt.  Still, he taught you to speak; and I couldn’t have done that, you know.