 Stephenson wrote new lyrics and a libretto to fit the music.He wrote a well-crafted play, with literary echoes of familiar themes reminiscent of Jane Austen's "Emma", yet with a more modern style, suggesting its eighteenth-century setting lightly rather than with the archaic literary tone common in Victorian drama.The work was mounted in London in the absence of Cellier, who was then in Australia conducting Gilbert and Sullivan operas.