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Intro
Hughie Erskine is a romantic, hopelessly ignorant of the pragmatic truths of life in 1880s London. Good-natured, charming, and popular, he nevertheless has no head for business and no will to compete. He lives off a meager allowance from his aunt. Hughie and Laura Merton are in love, but Laura’s father, the Colonel, forbids them to get married until Hughie has 10,000 pounds of his own. Hughie is accordingly depressed.
One day, Hughie visits his friend Alan Trevor—a painter—at his studio. Alan is painting an old beggar in rags, exulting in his fortune in finding such an expressive model. Pity for the ramshackle beggar seizes Hughie, who criticizes Alan’s cynicism and argues that the beggar should receive some of the substantial fee that Alan’s painting will fetch. When Alan steps out of the room, Hughie cannot resist giving his last sovereign to the beggar, figuring the man needs it more than he does. That afternoon, Laura sweetly reprimands his foolhardy generosity.
When Hughie runs into Alan again later that night at a club, Alan reveals that the beggar asked him all about Hughie after he left. Hughie continues to worry about the beggar, while Alan doubles down on his claim that the romantic image of the man’s poverty outweighs the misery he must feel in experiencing it. Hughie again accuses him of cynicism. Alan defends artists’ duty to art above social reform and adds that he told the beggar all about Hughie’s financial and romantic straits. This enrages Hughie, prompting Alan to finally reveal that the beggar is actually the millionaire Baron Hausberg, who requested to be painted in beggar’s clothes. A shocked Hughie reveals with dismay that he foolishly gave the man a coin, which makes Alan laugh hysterically.
The next morning, a messenger from the Baron arrives at Hughie’s house. Assuming that the Baron was insulted by his donation, Hughie starts to apologize. In fact, the messenger has come bearing a check for 10,000 pounds—“from an old beggar”—as repayment for Hughie’s generosity. Finally financially secure, Hughie marries Laura, and Alan is his best man. Baron Hausberg gives a speech at the wedding.
