Pearce takes Eliza away to talk to her in private.

Higgins neglects Eliza's feelings, ordering her to live with him for six months and take speaking lessons. Pearce tells Higgins not to 'walk over' Eliza. Eliza refuses to participate in the bet, and Mrs. Pearce to wash Eliza and dress her in new clothes, though Eliza protests. Higgins likes the idea and tells his housekeeper Mrs. Pickering steps in and bets Higgins that he can't teach Eliza to speak so well that she passes as a wealthy lady at an ambassador's garden party in six months. Higgins doesn't think she can afford to pay him, and scoffs rudely at her. Eliza arrives and offers to pay Higgins for speaking lessons, so that she can learn to 'talk more genteel,' and get a better job. The next morning, in Higgins' 'laboratory' at his home, Higgins is showing all of his scientific instruments and tools for recording and studying speech to Pickering. Freddy finally returns with a cab, only to find that his family is no longer there. Higgins and Pickering leave to get dinner together, while Clara and her mother walk to a bus. The rain stops and the crowd under the portico disperses. Higgins and Pickering introduce themselves to each other, realizing that they are familiar with each other's work (Pickering is also a linguist).

He says that he could teach the flower-girl Eliza to speak so well in just three months that she could pass for a noble lady. Eliza thinks he is a policeman trying to get her in trouble and insists that she is 'a good girl.' Pickering asks Higgins how he can tell where everyone is from, and Higgins explains that he studies phonetics and teaches people how to speak in different accents. Everyone is confused and annoyed by the meddlesome Higgins. The man, who turns out to be Henry Higgins, steps forward and guesses where everyone is from based on their manner of speech. Eliza thinks that the man is a policeman and that she is in trouble. A bystander tells Eliza to watch out for a strange man in the back of the crowd taking notes. Under the portico, a poor flower-girl ( Eliza Doolittle) sells a flower to a gentleman ( Colonel Pickering). Freddy enters, unable to find one, but his mother sends him back out into the rain to look again. Eynsford Hill) waits exasperatedly with her daughter Clara for her son Freddy to find a taxi. A wealthy mother (later revealed to be Mrs.

One rainy night in Covent Garden, London, a crowd of people from various social classes all seek shelter under the same church portico.

Pygmalion author george bernard