the 'old bachelor' is heartwell, 'a surly old pretended woman-hater', who falls in love with silvia, not knowing her to be the forsaken mistress of vainlove, and is lured into marrying her, only discovering her true character afterwards, from the gibes of his acquaintances. the parson who has been brought in to marry them, however, is in fact vainlove's friend belmour, who has assumed the disguise for the purpose of an intrigue with laetitia, the young wife of an uxorious old banker, fondlewife; and heartwell is relieved to discover that the marriage was a pretence.