Desperately missing Mollie, Ned goes back on the booze. Adam Badeau gets Wilkes to intervene with Mollie, who quits Cushman's troop immediately and rushes back to New York. Ned asks her to marry him. She says "yes." After the wedding, Wilkes and other wedding guests stay on for a bit; Ned and Mollie take them down Broadway, giving them a guided tour. Ned introduces Wilkes to Matthew Canning, a Philadelphia lawyer and actor's agent, and Wilkes and Canning reach a representation agreement.
Wilkes plays Columbus, Georgia; Canning meets him there and accidentally shoots him in the leg. In Montgomery, Maggie Mitchell takes Wilkes to hear the Prince of Fire-eaters on the night before the Presidential election.