anything. I don't know what appointments I've got. I'm--
[Pickering comes in. Mrs. Higgins puts down her pen and turns
away from the writing-table].

PICKERING [shaking hands] Good-morning, Mrs. Higgins. Has Henry
told you? [He sits down on the ottoman].

HIGGINS. What does that ass of an inspector say? Have you offered
a reward?

MRS. HIGGINS [rising in indignant amazement] You don't mean to
say you have set the police after Eliza?

HIGGINS. Of course. What are the police for? What else could we
do? [He sits in the Elizabethan chair].

PICKERING. The inspector made a lot of difficulties. I really
think he suspected us of some improper purpose.

MRS. HIGGINS. Well, of course he did. What right have you to go
to the police and give the girl's name as if she were a thief, or
a lost umbrella, or something? Really! [She sits down again,
deeply vexed].

HIGGINS. But we want to find her.

PICKERING. We can't let her go like this, you know, Mrs. Higgins.
What were we to do?

MRS. HIGGINS. You have no more sense, either of you, than two