Algie Broxley-Foggett

Algie Broxley-Foggett is a wealthy young Englishman marked by physical clumsiness, self-deprecation, and a knack for finding a new scheme when circumstances leave him stranded. His father sends him to the United States to make a man of him, ostensibly by putting him to work on a ranch; Algie arrives with little idea where ranches are or whether anyone will hire him. Later, after surviving the fire at Cy Goldman's estate, he turns up with ruined clothes and nowhere to stay, hoping to make a place for himself in Hollywood. His comic misadventures do not make him an outright villain, but the story leaves Georgiana Rannoch wary of his resourcefulness and doubtful that hardship will reform him.

Identity and Background

When Algie recognizes Georgiana at a gathering, he recalls meeting her at a hunt ball during her social season, at the Windermeres’. Tall and gangly, with hair falling over his forehead and a vacant-looking face, he bounds toward her with the eagerness of a puppy. Georgiana remembers him less fondly: at their earlier ball, he spun her so violently that they knocked over a statue. His account of having once set curtains alight with a cigarette is cheerfully dismissive; he calls it a silly accident and describes himself as accident-prone.

Algie’s family has money, and he is due to inherit a title. That security sits uneasily beside his father’s despair at his conduct. After Algie floods a bathroom and brings down its ceiling onto valuable paintings, his father buys him a one-way ticket to the United States and orders him to go West and make a man of himself. Algie admits that his father considers him a disaster, though Algie himself prefers the milder descriptions of disappointment or hopeless case. Darcy O’Mara later learns that Algie was sent down from Oxford for cheating. He has had no criminal record since, while his father, a military man, continues to despair of him.

Misadventures and the Western Plan

The hunt-ball mishap proves no isolated embarrassment. At another dance, Algie appears in a crusader’s armor and invites Georgiana onto the floor. The visor leaves him unable to see properly; as they career across the room, his sword sticks into people and the dancers they pass respond with curses, groans, and yelps. Georgiana recalls his earlier destructive turn and the toes he trod on, but cannot find a good excuse to refuse him. The scene makes his carelessness visible as a repeated social disturbance, not merely a story he tells about himself.

His father’s plan gives this comic ineptitude a practical destination, though Algie has scarcely thought through what it entails. He is told to work on a ranch to toughen him up, and Georgiana’s American friend predicts that he may stampede the herd. Algie says he rides rather well, but does not know whether he should look in Texas or Kansas, or whether any ranch would want him. He has no firm alternative beyond the possibility of visiting Georgiana in Hollywood if nothing works out. His uncertainty makes the grand-sounding Western remedy seem less like a chosen vocation than another circumstance into which his family has dispatched him.

The Fire and Its Aftermath

At the burning estate, Algie reappears with Ronnie as embers fall near the group. Ronnie points out that part of the house has a shake roof, and Algie responds in terror, fearing that everyone will be burned alive and calling for someone to act. The contrast is characteristic: the man who has been sent West to become tougher is still helpless in the face of immediate danger. The evidence does not make him responsible for the fire or show him undertaking a rescue; it presents him as frightened among the survivors.

Afterward, Algie and Belinda reach Georgiana and Darcy, their clothes dry but their appearance still suggesting shipwreck survivors. Algie’s white flannels are soot-smudged and badly crumpled, his pullover appears to have shrunk, and he says that they have no clothes, money, or place to go. He explains that he cannot wire his father for a handout. Belinda recounts their being stuck in a small office in the middle of nowhere and then realizing, once a car was found, that they had no destination. Their appeal to Georgiana is consequently both urgent and opportunistic: they ask to stay until they can decide what to do next.

Ambition, Connections, and Narrative Role

Algie proposes asking Golden Pictures for a job, arguing that the studio should continue even though Cy Goldman is gone. Georgiana doubts that the studio can be separated from its late mogul and asks whether Algie is suited to motion pictures. He answers by casting himself as a jack-of-all-trades and imagining himself as the next Douglas Fairbanks, while remaining willing to paint scenery. When Georgiana asks whether he would report to a set at six in the morning, he says he would if required, then wonders who is now in charge and whether the studio will compensate him for what he endured. Even his hopes for employment combine aspiration with a claim for recompense.

Georgiana suggests that he seek out Tubby Halliday, who is still among the journalists, since Algie is not especially popular where they are. Algie sees a possible scoop in Tubby’s presence: an account of Claire Daniels being rescued from danger could make the journalist’s name and earn Algie an interview fee. Georgiana suspects he may present himself as the hero who saved everyone from the fire. That suspicion is not confirmed as fact, but it captures the gap between Algie’s imagined public role and his observed panic. He also intends to find respectable clothes, hoping the studio will replace his ruined flannels and evening clothes.

A more personal route appears when Algie mentions that Craig Hart has offered to take care of him if he visits. Belinda and Georgiana exchange a smile, while Belinda, too, asks for temporary shelter and plans to use publicity from the fire to pursue costume-design work. Algie’s ending is therefore not a conversion into the sturdy ranch hand his father wants: he remains dependent on other people’s help, but keeps proposing ways to turn misfortune into an opening. His charm and comic self-invention coexist with Georgiana’s distrust, leaving his future less settled than his confidence suggests.