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.
LIZA [trivially] Of course: that is his profession.
HIGGINS. Damnation!