A boastful and elderly village Don Juan undertakes to give his young nephew lessons in courting, and to win a £5 bet as well by making Eliza, the shrewish housekeeper, promise to marry him. By means of flattery and avowal he accomplishes this. He is surprised and alarmed however when Eliza holds him to the offer. He is left iwth a wife who intends to reform him and without his £5 - for his nephew, having learnt the lesson all too well, has gone off with a girl and now refuses to pay the bet.