Reggie and Alice are married and George intends to leave them to their wedded bliss, but they insist on him joining them for a wedding lunch. At the restaurant Reggie frets about how to break the news to his stepmother, and George suggests that he write Lady Caroline a letter. Reggie considers this a stroke of genius; the letter will be delivered while they're on an extended honeymoon trip across Europe and Caroline's rage will have simmered down by the time they return. This settled, Reggie glances around the restaurant and is shocked to see his uncle, Lord Marshmoreton, walk in accompanied by a woman. George recognizes her: it's Billie Dore. Reggie and Alice ask him to go over and break the news of their marriage to Lord Marshmoreton while they slip out the door. George agrees and strolls over to their table where Billie greets him happily. She explains that she got a card from Lord Marshmoreton the previous evening at the theater and was shocked to find out that he's the supposed gardener from Belpher. Lord Marshmoreton is looking quite youthful and happy, so George takes the moment to tell him that Reggie has married his secretary, Alice Faraday. Lord M is shocked but then relieved, to George's surprise. He explains that this will give him a respite from writing his dratted family history. Lord M. is moved to unburden himself; he tells them that when he was a young man, he was planning to go to Canada and be a farmer. He had already purchased a fruit farm there when his uncle- who was Lord Marshmoreton- died unexpectedly in an accident and the new Lord Marshmoreton, his uncle's baby son, died shortly thereafter of the croup. To his dismay, Lord M. found himself saddled with the title and estate, and saw his dreams of farming in Canada go up in smoke. He says that he tried to fight against it, but knows that he's now as big a snob as the rest of his family. George and Billie are a little uncomfortable being on the receiving of these confessions, and George takes his leave. Breaking Lord M's brooding silence, Billie remarks that George is a nice person. Lord M. tells her that George wants to marry his daughter, and that he refused permission. He says he knows that Billie will think that this is because he's a snob who doesn't think George is good enough for Maud. He say that the truth is that he likes George, but is too spineless to stand against Caroline and Percy over the issue. They are determined that Maud must marry for either position or fortune. Billie says that in that case, George is his man, because he's loaded. Lord M. is shocked: how can he be; he writes tunes for a living. Billie explains that George is a composer and gets a percentage of the gross receipts on the shows of his which are playing. He also gets royalties from all the copies of all his songs which sell. In short, he's swimming in cash. Lord M. is staggered and Billie says that she knew George before he had a penny, and that becoming wealthy hasn't changed him in the least- he's still the same nice guy. While Lord M. is mulling this over, Billie says that she needs to get back to the theater for rehearsal. Lord M. asks her to skip it but she points out that she needs her job. He hesitantly suggests that he'd like to offer her a different position and Billie stiffens, expecting an improper advance. To her surprise, Lord M, remembering that George had told him Billie used to be a stenographer, offers her Alice's job as his secretary. Billie says that she'd love to- she fell in love with the castle while she was there- so he tells her to go back to the theater, resign and pack, and then meet him at Waterloo Station to make the trip down to Belpher. Meanwhile at the castle, Keggs informs young Albert that he was onto his machinations to try to get Maud and Reggie together while sabotaging George's chances. He gloats that he arranged a meeting between Maud and George and intends to arrange for George to be invited to dinner at Belpher. Albert, in awe of Keggs' powers of subterfuge, realizes that he has been bested by a superior manipulator and resigns himself to defeat. In order to put the next part of his plan into action, Keggs goes to see Lord Percy. He pretends that he has just found out that George was masquerading as a servant on the night of the party and is immediately bringing the information to Percy. He also tells Percy that he knows why George was sneaking in: to see Maud. Keggs then offers his advice to Percy as a faithful family servant. He suggests that, if Maud was given the opportunity to view George in contrast with her aristocratic family and friends, she would soon realize that he is completely ineligible and reject him. Since this is exactly how Percy thinks, he decides that this suggestion is inspired and says he will speak to his father about having George invited to their dinner party the following evening. The next morning, a smug Keggs gives Albert a dinner invitation to take to George's cottage. Albert is staggered by this further proof that Keggs is an evil genius, and Keggs deigns to give him a valuable piece of advice: don't grow up to be a fathead like Percy.
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