Phonetics Professor Henry Higgins first meets Eliza Doolittle, a flower girl, near the Royal Opera House, late on a cold March night. Eliza is selling flowers. Higgins is out on his endless search for new dialects of prefix = st1 /London's speech.      Higgins makes a bet with Colonel Pickering that he can turn the cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, into a lady within three months. To do so, he must change her thick Londonaccent, teach her to speak proper English and teach her manners.      Higgins looks upon her not as a person but as raw material for his experiment. He trains Eliza for weeks. When no progress is made, Eliza, loses her courage, Higgins loses his temper, and even Pickering's patience wears thin.      At last she improves. In order to test Eliza, he decides to introduce her to his mother's guests at the Ascot Race Meeting. Eliza proves to be a success. Pickering and Higgins are very proud, and neither of them takes into account Eliza's personal accomplishments in the matter. Eliza has absorbed the sophistication and the courage to see the unfairness of  this, and she _ , demanding recognition. The Professor is astonished. It is as though a statue has come to life and spoken. Eliza rushes out of the house angrily.      Higgins discovers that he is hurt because Eliza leaves him. He meets her at his mother's flat where she has gone for advice. They argue violently and she storms out. It is only a moment after her departure that Higgins finally wakes up to the fact that Eliza has become an entirely independent and admirable human being. He realizes that he will have a difficult time getting on without her. What is Henry Higgins doing when he meets Eliza?
He is buying some flowers. He is in search of new dialects. He is making a speech in London. He is watching a play in the Royal Opera House.