Emily finally yields to Lopez’s persistent courtship despite her father’s strong objections and Arthur Fletcher’s continuing devotion, and Abel Wharton reluctantly accepts the marriage rather than lose his daughter, but the honeymoon quickly reveals the weakness of the match as Lopez becomes dissatisfied with the money available to him and shows an increasingly calculating obsession with wealth, while the Duke of Omnium struggles to lead a coalition divided by incompatible interests and the Duchess tries to strengthen her husband’s position through social influence, eventually encouraging Lopez to stand for Parliament at Silverbridge, and Lopez treats her encouragement almost as a guarantee of political advancement and enters the contest with growing confidence even as his treatment of Emily and her family becomes more demanding and aggressive, foreshadowing disaster in both his marriage and his political ambitions.
