Lady Huntworth's Experiment

[4][5] The piece was revived in London in 1907; Compton reprised her role of Caroline, and was joined by Charles Hawtrey as Captain Dorvaston and Weedon Grossmith as Lord Huntworth.

She was married to a drunken and abusive husband and endured eleven years of matrimonial misery before Lord Huntworth divorced her on a spurious charge of adultery so that he could pursue a rich widow.

The vicar, Gandy (his manservant), and the captain are all much taken with Caroline, and each plans to meet her in her kitchen on an evening when her fellow-servants are absent and the other inmates of the house have gone to a penny reading.

The act ends with the Captain, at Caroline's request, carrying out the sleeping Lord Huntworth to put him in a dry ditch at the bottom of the garden.

[10] The Times thought the plot predictable towards the denouement, but praised the dialogue "liberally sprinkled with very passable witticisms", "little touches of genuine observation" in the characterisation, and the general air of "frankness, freshness and good humour".

[11] The Era said, "The humour of the dialogue is delightful, the drollery of the situations is irresistible, but what we like even more are the touches of true sentiment and the evidences of observation which are striking and frequent".

[9] When the play opened on Broadway, The New York Times found it "new and exceptionally bright and entertaining", and commented that it contained "passages of pure farce" and others of "dignity and feeling".