Lord Mortimer and Penelope Bransom first meet when she is in the park trying to save a young girl from her abusive father. He walks her home but they separate without knowing much of each other. They do meet again in society in the following days and we start to know more about them.
Charles, Lord Mortimer had fallen in love a few years before with a woman who eventually married another, richer, man and now that he is returned to society titled and rich he hasn’t been able to refuse her and they’ve been having an affair.