The Wallingtons are a very old and aristocratic family. Arthur, the only son, is a bachelor clubman of about thirty-five. When quite accidentally he meets little Dolly, an actress in a local stock company, her sweetness and innocence appeal to him strongly and he falls in love with her. Arthur's gouty old father and aristocratic Aunt Emma are scandalized upon learning that their Arthur, the pride and hope of the Wallingtons, is in danger of being ensnared by a "woman of the stage," and immediately lay plans to "disillusionize" him. Dolly is convinced that Arthur's marriage to her would ruin his prospects and she consents to do the old stunt of "disillusionizing" him. Cousin Herbert Wallington is called upon to play the man in the case. Accordingly, on a certain evening, Dolly cancels an engagement with Arthur, hires some loud clothes and goes out with Cousin Herbert to a bohemian café. At the same time his father surprises Arthur by asking him to a little supper at this same café. Arrived there, Arthur catches sight of Dolly and Cousin Herbert doing their best to appear drunk and abandoned. He also observes certain signals pass between Dolly, Herbert and his father. A moment's thought on his part gives their little plot away and Arthur decides to play the game through, but to play it his way. His father's ingenuous efforts to make him see the supposedly abandoned girl fail. At last the old man points, saying. "Who is that bold baggage over there with your Cousin Herbert?" This is where Arthur turns the tables. Instead of being shocked and horrified at his fiancée's indulgence in cigarettes and champagne, Arthur insists on all hands joining in one party and on ordering more drinks. And he makes sure that everyone drinks. At three o'clock in the morning he sends father and Cousin Herbert home, ossified, in a taxi with a waiter and a policeman, and himself conducts Dolly to her boarding house. Next morning he calls upon her and makes her confess that her part in the orgy was acted only to "disillusionize" him "for the sake of his future." Then he produces a minister and a marriage license.