LIZA. I see. [She turns away composedly, and sits on the ottoman,
facing the window]. The same to everybody.
HIGGINS. Just so.
LIZA. Like father.
HIGGINS [grinning, a little taken down] Without accepting the
comparison at all points, Eliza, it's quite true that your father is
not a snob, and that he will be quite at home in any station of life to
which his eccentric destiny may call him. [Seriously] The great secret,
Eliza, is not having bad manners or good manners or any other
particular sort of manners, but having the same manner for all human
souls: in short, behaving as if you were in Heaven, where there are no
third-class carriages, and one soul is as good as another.
LIZA. Amen. You are a born preacher.
HIGGINS [irritated] The question is not whether I treat you rudely, but
whether you ever heard me treat anyone else better.
LIZA [with sudden sincerity] I don't care how you treat me. I don't
mind your swearing at me. I don't mind a black eye: I've had one before
this. But [standing up and facing him] I won't be passed over.
HIGGINS. Then get out of my way; for I won't stop for you. You talk
about me as if I were a motor bus.
LIZA. So you are a motor bus: all bounce and go, and no consideration
for anyone. But I can do without you: don't think I can't.
HIGGINS. I know you can. I told you you could.
LIZA [wounded, getting away from him to the other side of the ottoman
with her face to the hearth] I know you did, you brute. You wanted to
get rid of me.
HIGGINS. Liar.
LIZA. Thank you. [She sits down with dignity].
HIGGINS. You never asked yourself, I suppose, whether I could do
without YOU.
LIZA [earnestly] Don't you try to get round me. You'll HAVE to do
without me.
HIGGINS [arrogant] I can do without anybody. I have my own soul: my own
spark of divine fire. But [with sudden humility] I shall miss you,
Eliza. [He sits down near her on the ottoman]. I have learnt something
from your idiotic notions: I confess that humbly and gratefully. And I
have grown accustomed to your voice and appearance. I like them, rather.
LIZA. Well, you have both of them on your gramophone and in your book
of photographs. When you feel lonely without me, you can turn the
machine on. It's got no feelings to hurt.
HIGGINS. I can't turn your soul on. Leave me those feelings; and you
can take away the voice and the face. They are not you.