Vera and Ginny are off to Sandwich to get Mrs Gosling back. Henry must crack on with his biography of the King - Ginny orders Lionel to stay and help him.

Ginny wants to call en route on Lytton Scratchy and Dora Barrington who have rented a cottage nearby. Ginny admires Barrington's boyish and independent spirit (and haircut) and thinks she is the epitome of the Modern Woman.

Back at Sizzlinghurst, Lionel, a republican, tries to persuade Henry to abandon the biography of the King, but Henry needs the money, finds Lionel's interference annoying, and sends him off to walk the dogs. The peace and quiet is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of the Prince of Wales with Mrs Simpleton.

The Prince wonders how the book is going and Henry assures him he it's all wonderful and fascinating even though moments before, he was telling Lionel that the King is the most boring man ever born. Then, walking in the garden, Mrs Simpleton meets Lionel. Not knowing who she is, he launches into an anti-monarchist tirade about Henry's talents being wasted on this mediocre king. When he realises who she is, he has a panic attack and feigns madness to escape.

Meanwhile Ginny and Vera have moved on to Sandwich, disappointed by what they found at the cottage. For all their claims to a modern lifestyle, Scratchy and Barrington displayed a nauseating example of women's enslavement. Talking of which, Mrs Gosling is persuaded to come home, but her marriage to Mr Gosling is more fragile than ever now that she knows he has slept with her sister.