After Major Tifto’s dishonesty is exposed Silverbridge abandons the racing world and the Duke pays his enormous debts only after securing his son’s promise to give up the turf, yet further trouble arrives when the younger son Gerald also becomes involved in academic and gambling difficulties, while Silverbridge openly declares his love for Isabel and she honestly acknowledges the social obstacles created by her American background, forcing the Duke to confront the possibility that the heir to his title may marry outside the aristocratic world he had always assumed, and although he initially resists the match Isabel’s intelligence and character gradually soften his prejudice while Tregear’s growing political standing likewise makes it harder for him to dismiss Mary’s chosen husband as simply unworthy.
