A Poached Peerage

An inn window becomes the entrance to a tangle of flirtation and suspicion in Great Bunbury. Mercy Popkiss tells Tom Sparrow that she is leaving the Quorn Arms to work at the Towers, where the expected arrival of a new Lord Quorn promises changes. Tom worries about rivals among the grand household, while a visitor with a telegram from the Yard questions Mercy about an arrival of quite another kind.

William Magnay builds his comic romance from jealous claims, awkward concealments and conversations that go wrong. In a later scene, Lalage stations Carnaby inside a suit of armour to watch Peckover during a meeting with Ethel, turning a private appointment into an uncomfortable performance. The humour comes from the gap between what people intend and what their listeners understand. Readers interested in British social comedy will find servants, titled society and competing romantic expectations brought together through brisk dialogue and physical farce.