A calamity.
For Eliza’s first test, Henry brings her to his mother’s home where Mrs. Higgins, Mrs. Eynsford Hill, Clara, and Freddy are all in attendance. Henry and Pickering test Eliza’s skills so far by making her converse with them, which she did well… at first. One she got comfortable, her old slang began to creep back into her speech and the guests found it amusing. They were too astounded with her appearance to notice how sketchy her improper speech was and assumed that that was the new way of talking. Higgins and Pickering had to cover up for her, and tried to get her out of the conversation so that she would not expose herself.
LIZA [darkly] My aunt died of influenza: So they said.
MRS EYNSFORD HILL [clicks her tongue sympathetically]!!!
LIZA [in the same tragic tone] But it's my belief they done the old woman in.
MRS HIGGINS [puzzled] Done her in?
LIZA Y-e-e-e-es, Lord love you! Why should she die of influenza? She come through diphtheria right enough the year before. I saw her with my own eyes. Fairly blue with it, she was. They all thought she was dead; but my father he kept ladling gin down her throat til she came to so sudden that she bit the bowl off the spoon.
MRS EYNSFORD HILL [startled] Dear me!
LIZA [piling up the indictment] What call would a woman with that strength in her have to die of influenza? What become of her new straw hat that should have come to me? Somebody pinched it; and what I say is, them as pinched it done her in.
MRS EYNSFORD HILL What does doing her in mean?
HIGGINS [hastily] Oh, that's the new small talk. To do a person in means to kill them.
For Eliza’s first test, Henry brings her to his mother’s home where Mrs. Higgins, Mrs. Eynsford Hill, Clara, and Freddy are all in attendance. Henry and Pickering test Eliza’s skills so far by making her converse with them, which she did well… at first. One she got comfortable, her old slang began to creep back into her speech and the guests found it amusing. They were too astounded with her appearance to notice how sketchy her improper speech was and assumed that that was the new way of talking. Higgins and Pickering had to cover up for her, and tried to get her out of the conversation so that she would not expose herself.
LIZA [darkly] My aunt died of influenza: So they said.
MRS EYNSFORD HILL [clicks her tongue sympathetically]!!!
LIZA [in the same tragic tone] But it's my belief they done the old woman in.
MRS HIGGINS [puzzled] Done her in?
LIZA Y-e-e-e-es, Lord love you! Why should she die of influenza? She come through diphtheria right enough the year before. I saw her with my own eyes. Fairly blue with it, she was. They all thought she was dead; but my father he kept ladling gin down her throat til she came to so sudden that she bit the bowl off the spoon.
MRS EYNSFORD HILL [startled] Dear me!
LIZA [piling up the indictment] What call would a woman with that strength in her have to die of influenza? What become of her new straw hat that should have come to me? Somebody pinched it; and what I say is, them as pinched it done her in.
MRS EYNSFORD HILL What does doing her in mean?
HIGGINS [hastily] Oh, that's the new small talk. To do a person in means to kill them.