The Celebrity meets Irene Trevor, the daughter of an Ohio state senator, and asks her to marry him, and she accepts.
When a female he perceives as more desirable, Marian Thorn, arrives at Asquith, the Celebrity leaves Miss Trevor without breaking off the engagement.
Mr. Cooke buys a new yacht, the Maria (named after his wife), and he invites all his guests for a trip to Bear Island.
At Bear Island, a newspaper brought on board the yacht reveals that Charles Wrexell Allan has embezzled $100,000 from the Miles Standish Bicycle Company.
When the Celebrity asks John Crocker and Miss Trevor to reveal his true identity, they decide to be mischievous and pretend not to know him by any name but Allan.
Captain McMain, Chief of the Far Harbor Police, searches the boat but does not find the Celebrity.
Now, John Crocker realizes that the girls were in on a plot[clarification needed] to humiliate the Celebrity for going against his own doctrine from his stories.
He realizes Mr. Allen has been posing as the Celebrity and traveling through Europe on a book signing tour.
One attempt to complete it met with some suggestions for revision from the publisher, and the rewritten version finished in France apparently got lost in the mail to New York.
Churchill meanwhile began working on his next novel, Richard Carvel, and did not turn back to completing The Celebrity manuscript, which he substantially rewrote, for the final time in mid-1897.