Turns out that an occasional attractive young maid isn't the only thing with which Lord Grantham should not be left alone.
He also can't be trusted with the Downton Abbey checkbook.
Season Three of "Downton Abbey," the most popular series in PBS "Masterpiece Theater" history, began Sunday night in the warmest of afterglows, following Matthew's dramatic proposal to Lady Mary at the end of the Season Two.
So Matthew (Dan Stevens) and Mary (Michelle Dockery) were getting married, the Great War had ended, and everything would now return to the marvelous life and splendor that had long been Downton, right?
Well, not exactly.
If it's any consolation, viewers who got that one wrong had a lot of company. Like most of the "Downton Abbey" cast.
For starters, it turns out Lord Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) has let the place go bust.
Seems he insisted, against the advice of his financial advisors, to sink most of Downton's money â€" the money injected by the family of Lady Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) in return for Lord Grantham marrying her â€" into the Canadian General Trunk Line railroad.
Everyone said that the war would bring unprecedented prosperity to the railroad industry, exclaimed Lord Grantham.
And so it did, replied his advisor. Except not this particular trunk line. This company was run into bankruptcy and now that Canada was nationalizing the rails, it was not being invited to the party.
Making Lord Grantham, as he bitterly reminds himself out loud, the Earl who blew it â€" the one who, after all these centuries, put Downton Abbey out of business, along with all the people it employed and supported and to whom it provided a beacon of stability and grandeur.
He tells all this to Lady Cora, who forgives him at once and cheers him up by reminding him they still have a wonderful life surrounded by wonderful people. They can be just as happy in a smaller house.
She's an American. What does she know?
Still, Lord Grantham is relieved, if not convinced. So he tells Lady Mary, an innocent gesture that almost torpedoes the wedding.
In a development that demands a bit of faith from the viewer in the power of coincidence, Matthew learns that he has become the wholly unexpected heir to the "very large" fortune of Reginald Swire, the father of the late Lavinia Swire.
Lavinia and Matthew were engaged until he realized he was still in love with Mary and Lavinia died of the Spanish flu.
Those two matters were unrelated, but they joined to create a massive ball of guilt inside Matthew, which is why he told Mary he could not accept this inheritance, but had to give it away lest he not be able to live with himself.
Mary was okay with this when Matthew first told her. But a few hours later, when Lord Grantham told her of Downton's imminent financial collapse, she went back to Matthew in search of assurance he would now use that inheritance to save Downton.
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