It was all the fault of Lora Delane Porter, rich American widow, eugenist, writer and lecturer. When Kirk Winfield, an unsuccessful artist but with a small private income and a fine physique, fell in love with Ruth Bannister at first sight, and she with him (she being Mrs Porter's niece and the daughter of a Wall Street millionaire), Mrs Porter said, 'Marry, for the good of the race.' They marry. It is not too happy. Kirk's income isn't enough for two. Ruth objects to his sponging friends and to the friendly model who is sitting for his 'Ariadne in Naxos' and calls him Kirk. Ruth suggests that Kirk go in for landscape paint»ing, and, if he must, finish Ariadne with herself as model. She faints on the dais and there's going to be a b-a-b-y. Enter Bill, nine pounds and with a fine physique. He is instantly, and without much fuss from Ruth, brought up on Mrs Porter's lines of eugenic untouchability. Kirk, in the hope of making money, goes off gold-prospecting in Colombia with his old friend Hank Jardine. Ruth's father dies and she inherits money and becomes a prominent New York hostess, pursued by a rich ex-boyfriend. Kirk returns, having failed to find gold and having lost his friend Hank Jardine (fever). Kirk, with the help of Steve Dingle, the ex-pug gymnasium instructor, and Mamie, Bill's nursemaid, kidnaps Bill and whisks him off to a mountain fastness. Ruth loses her money in the crash of her silly brother's firm, inher»ited from father, on Wall Street, and she returns to her own family, poor but happy. It's that for Aunt Lora. Young Bill shall get dirty sometimes, he shall fight the neighbour bully child, he shall have an Irish terrier puppy to hug. It's happy endings for the Winfields, reunited, and not so happy for Aunt Lora.

All American, except for an English butler in the Bannister house.

Source: Richard Usborne. Plum Sauce. A P G Wodehouse Companion.