For the sake of the old Earl, who has fallen ill, Angela and Lord Daventry have agreed to a sham engagement. After the death of the Earl, when she is supposed to call the engagement off, Angela realizes that she loves Lord Daventry. "Though we're as different as night and day, I want this to be a real engagement." She conveys her feelings to him, but Lord Daventry, thinking she's confusing love with pity, turns her down. Lord Daventry believes that Angela should marry the vicar, who loves her, and not a man who hides his terrible wound behind a mask and is feared as "Lord Lucifer."