Captain Cardew prefers balls at regional assemblies and small country houses because there he can meet the daughters of the lower class of gentry, who are impressed by his uniform and his rank, and are easily seduced. At one of these balls, at Hawtry Hall, he meets Millicent, a doctor's daughter, and Hannah, a clergyman's daughter, and seduces them both, one after the other. But, as he has found before, it is much easier to get into these affairs than to get out of them.