On this beautiful morning we find Freddie Threepwood and his father Lord Emsworth in a London hotel, Freddie just having used the telephone to arrange a meeting with a certain Dickie when his father comes in, annoyed at his son being late in getting up. While Freddie gets bathed and dressed the Earl of Emsworth muses over the misfortunes of his younger son, having been expelled from both Eton and Oxford and spending so much money on the London nightlife and the turf that he finally had to cut off his allowance and made London a no-go area for him. That they are nevertheless here now lies in the fact that Mr. Peters, an American millionaire who has rented an estate next to Blandings Castle, has invited Lord Emsworth over to his London town house to look at his collection of scarabs. On their getting neighbourly acquainted mr. Peters' daughter Aline and Freddie got along so well that a betrothal ensued, duly advertised in the societal newspaper columns. Although being in the City always depresses Lord Emswoth, he inwardly smiled at the thought that the future would lift the burden of being responsible for his straying son off his shoulders. He therefore does not make a point of Freddie having extended an invitation to visit Blandings Castle to a certain mr. Emerson, who apparently has met Aline while on the baat from America.