Now the following things occur: Billy decides that the first order of business is to get Jimmy out of town. He invents a Bible crisis in Philadelphia and packs Jimmy off. But Jimmy, to make her happy, decides to take Nanette and Pauline to Atlantic City instead and say nothing about it to Billy, Sue or Lucille. Sue and Lucille decide that if they are to be grass widows for a weekend they may as well have a little fun at it. In Atlantic City. Billy arranges to meet the three not-so-innocent charmers in Atlantic City to arrange a price to buy them off. Tom, who works for Billy, must go too, of course. He instructs Nanette to be prudent in his absence. But she flaunts her independent spirit and her two hundred dollars, admonished but unbowed. Of course in Act Two everybody turns up in Atlantic City. Tom and Nanette discover each other first. After apologies and explanations are exchanged, they find themselves enchanted with that "little cottage" the Smiths are about to sublet, and dream of the day when they too will share the good life together. While the youngsters go to dress for a hotel tea dance, the three wronged maidens appear. First Betty from Boston, then Winnie from Washington and finally Flora from Frisco. Each in turn explains that only dire circumstances forced her to accept money from kindly Mr. Smith. He made them happy. All they want now is to be kept that way. Sue finds Billy negotiating with the three girls and leaps to the wrong conclusion - that Billy has been philandering with them and using her innocent Biblical husband's name. The cad! It is clearly her duty to tell Lucille - and she does. Lucille takes her word for it and promptly moves to a hotel where her 'phone won't answer to Billy. Then Sue packs Nanette and Pauline off for New York by the next train. Nanette and Tom have a lovers' quarrel before she leaves, and the whole weekend is clearly a disaster. Sue asks Jimmy (of all people) to explain how all this happened. But all he can say is that he wants to be happy. Act Three opens with a very worried Billy desperately dialling his estranged Lucille and pretending to himself that he doesn't really mind getting hung up on. Lucille, for her part, is wearing her despair very attractively. Finally, things begin to get sorted out. The three greedy girlies settle for a mere twenty thousand each. Billy will take the blame and Jimmy (three-quarters of a millionaire) will foot the bill. Furthermore, the girls admit to Lucille that Billy was never the one to lead them on with gifts and flattery - it was Jimmy all the time and he never laid a hand on them. Lucille makes up with her husband and runs to tell her best friend Sue that it was really her husband who's to blame. Tom and Nanette (who is still waiting for the next train back to New York) are reconciled too. One kiss and there are wedding bells in the air. Sue accepts the news that it was Jimmy, not Billy, who was philandering - although platonically. All he wanted to do was to share his Bible money, and you can't fault that. It's because I'm plain, she decides. Lucille urges her to get dressed up fit to kill and win Jimmy's full attention back, once and for all. In a rare moment of abandon, she decides, "What the hell! Why not!" Kill she does upon her entrance as belle of the costume party that follows immediately. Tom and Nanette announce their engagement. Everybody dances with everyone else, and Pauline, who can handle things without assistance from anyone, takes a solo turn before gallantly surrendering the stage. At the FINALE, all's right with Atlantic City, Nanette and the world. May it someday be so innocently right - and happy - again! Charles Burr
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