Percy- Lord Belpher- is, of course, an idiot and a snob so we don't feel at all badly as he suffers pain and humiliation. He's the author of his own misfortune, and his misfortune is pretty funny. The entire novel is pretty funny, but this section in particular tickles my funny bone. The image of the diminutive Rev. Cyril Ferguson confronting Lord Belpher, defending the virtue of a lady from an inebriated stalker awakes our admiration as well as our amusement. Naive and meek the curate may be, but he certainly proves himself equal to the task of dealing with Percy. This episode marks another occasion of mistaken identity occurring in the novel, and it's probably the funniest one. The sermon delivered to Percy by the Rev. Cyril on the subject of his supposed drunkenness is priceless:
"You ought to be ashamed of yourself," he said severely. "Sad piece of human wreckage as you are, you speak like an educated man. Have you no self-respect? Do you never search your heart and shudder at the horrible degradation which you have brought on yourself by sheer weakness of will?"
This earnest speech causes the sore, simmering Lord Belpher to lose his temper entirely and results in his incarceration in the broom closet. His later encounter with the blacksmith is likewise amusing, especially the man giving Lord Belpher- supposed derelict- a shilling, and a Temperance pamphlet which begins with a cautionary tale: "Job Roberts had always been a hard-drinking man, but one day, as he was coming out of the bar-parlour..."
So to sum up, there isn't much plot development through this portion of the novel, but it's a hugely entertaining, especially if you're listening to it in audio book form.