Pygmalion. The beginning of the Act IV

Click on the green words if you want to see their meanings

The Wimpole Street laboratory. Midnight. Nobody in the room. The clock on the mantelpiece strikes twelve. The fire is not alight: it is a summer night.

Presently Higgins and Pickering are heard on the stairs.

HIGGINS [calling down to Pickering] I say, Pick: lock up, will you. I shan't be going out again.

PICKERING. Right. Can Mrs. Pearce go to bed? We don't want anything more, do we?

HIGGINS. Lord, no!

Eliza opens the door and is seen on the lighted landing in opera cloak, brilliant evening dress, and diamonds, with fan, flowers, and all accessories. She comes to the hearth, and switches on the electric lights there. She is tired: her  pallor contrasts strongly with her dark eyes and hair; and her expression is almost tragic. She takes off her pallor; puts her fan and flowers on the piano; and sits down on the bench, brooding and silent. Higgins, in evening dress, with overcoat and hat, comes in, carrying a smoking jacket which he has picked up downstairs. He takes off the hat and overcoat; throws them carelessly on the newspaper stand; disposes of his coat in the same way; puts on the smoking jacket; and throws himself wearily into the easy-chair at the hearth. Pickering, similarly attired, comes in. He also takes off his hat and overcoat, and is about to throw them on Higgins's when he hesitates.

PICKERING. I say: Mrs. Pearce will row if we leave these things lying (in flat position) about in the drawing-room.

HIGGINS. Oh, chuck them over the banisters  into the hall. She'll find them there in the morning and put them away all right. She'll think we were drunk.

PICKERING. We are, slightly. Are there any letters?

HIGGINS. I didn't look. [Pickering takes the overcoats and hats and goes down stairs. Higgins begins half singing half yawning (gaping, bostezando) an air from La Fanciulla del Golden West. Suddenly he stops and exclaims] I wonder where the devil my slippers are!

Eliza looks at him darkly (threateningly); then leaves the room.

Higgins yawns again, and resumes his song. Pickering returns, with the contents of the letter-box in his hand.

PICKERING. Only circulars (official letter or advertisement that is sent to a large number of people at the same time), and this coroneted (with a small crown) billet-doux  for you. [He throws the circulars into the  fender, and posts himself on the hearthrug, with his back to the grate].

HIGGINS [glancing at the billet-doux] bank. [He throws the letter after the circulars].

Eliza returns with a pair of large down-at-heel slippers (in bad condition). She places them on the carpet before Higgins, and sits as before without a word.

HIGGINS [yawning again] Oh Lord! What an evening! What a crew! What a silly tomfoollery (foolishness, buffoonery, clowning, fooling around (informal), horseplay, shenanigans (informal), silliness, skylarking (informal), stupidity)! [He raises his shoe to unlace it, and catches sight of the slippers. He stops unlacing and looks at them as if they had appeared there of their own accord]. Oh! they're there, are they?

PICKERING [stretching himself] Well, I feel a bit tired. It's been a long day. The garden party, a dinner party, and the opera! Rather too much of a good thing. But you've won your bet, Higgins. Eliza did the trick (she achieved what they wanted), and something to spare, eh?

HIGGINS [fervently] Thank God it's over!

Eliza  flinch violently; but they take no notice of her; and she recovers herself and sits  stonily as before.

PICKERING. Were you nervous at the garden party? I was. Eliza didn't seem a bit nervous.