Love's Pilgrimage to America

Summary

In a frost-laced cathedral town where Anglican spires duel with aristocratic turrets, golden-haired Lulu—bishop’s daughter, hymnbook rebel—conducts a clandestine romance with Tom, the Duke of Bilgewater’s restless nephew. Their betrothal detonates two drawing-rooms at once: ecclesiastical wrath meets ducal decree; prayer books slam against pedigrees. Banished from ancestral velvet, the lovers flee to Manhattan’s electric dusk, trading stained glass for neon promises. Yet the New World greets them with comic sadism: Tom peddles hagiographies no sinner buys, Lulu types letters for a lecherous magnate who mistakes her virtue for office equipment. Penniless, they masquerade as married domestics inside the very mansion whose owner once groped her—farce nesting inside hypocrisy. One spilled tureen, one burglar, one vindictive cook later, the couple lands in a night-court vaudeville, only to be saved by a deus-ex-wire: Tom has inherited the dukedom via battlefield attrition. They sail home, wed, ascend the ancestral throne—love commodified into heraldry, pilgrimage completed, illusions intact.

Synopsis

Lulu is the daughter of an English bishop and she loves and is loved by Tom, nephew of the Duke of Bilgewater. Lulu and Tom finally decide to tell their folks that they have become engaged. They expect a little opposition, for their respective fathers and uncle are enemies, but bravely hope to overcome it and make things right. Lulu leaves Tom at her door and goes in and gladly announces that she is to marry the duke's nephew. A scene ensues and in the duke's castle a like scene is going on. The bishop insists that Lulu marry his curate, whom she despises, while the duke insists that Tom marry his cousin, Lady Mary, who has more brains than beauty. Tom refuses to marry his cousin and is ordered to leave the house. He and Lulu plan to elope. So they leave England to seek their fortune in America, confidently hoping to marry as soon as this is accomplished. Arrived in New York, Tom finds that the only thing he can get to do is peddling books. Meanwhile Lulu attracts the attention of an old chap into whose office she goes, and he at once engages her to be his typewriter. Tom puts up $70 for his books and starts out to sell them. But it seems that "The Lives of the Saints" are not popular that year, and so he meets with nothing but failure. He happens into the office where Lulu is at work and there finds her struggling in the embrace of the old man. He fights with the old man and this interference causes Lulu to be "fired." They are unable to pay their hotel bill, and stealing away they seek refuge in the park. In the morning they see an advertisement for a maid and butler, so, pretending they are married, they apply for the jobs and luckily get them. To their consternation they find that the man of the house is the same old fellow in whose office Lulu worked for a few hours. Tom, in his utter surprise, drops a whole tureen full of soup over his master. Lulu warns the old man that if he fires Tom she will tell his wife all. So he agrees to keep his mouth shut. That night Tom and Lulu are shown to the same room. This will not do, so Tom takes his belongings and camps out in the hall. Feeling a bit cold, he steals into what he supposes to be an empty room, only to find it occupied by the cook. She chases him downstairs, where he has a bout with a burglar, who disappears leaving Tom with the bag of loot in his hands. The master and mistress come down. Tom and Lulu are taken for thieves and sent to the police station. Next morning, however, the old man is afraid to prosecute, so they are set free. This time in their search for work they are less fortunate. The only thing they can get is a very menial job called help's help in a large hotel. Here they wait upon the cooks and waiters and are treated with much disdain by their fellow servants. Tom is soon fired, but Lulu keeps the job. In the park Tom is accused of stealing a purse from a fiery old man to whom he was about to restore his property. The old man jails Tom. An old friend of Tom's comes to the hotel and visits the fiery old chap who jailed him. Lulu, who has been forced to don the attire of a bellboy to escape the attentions of a French cook, happens to be sent to their room with some drinks and hears them discussing Tom. Then she hears Tom's friend say that the Duke of Bilgewater is dead, and that his son has been killed in the trenches. She steps forward and discloses her identity. The old man, who proves to be a lawyer who is searching for Tom, asks where his lordship is. Lulu tells the old man that Tom is in jail where he put him. Tom is released and told of his good fortune. He and Lulu lose no time in getting home to England. There they are married at once and go to the castle.