When Wyndham was preparing the London production of a third farce – Betsy (1879), F. C. Burnand's adaptation of Bébé – he cast Maltby as the eccentric tutor. The play was a success, and Maltby was highly praised in the press. He played the part in several revivals of the piece, and in 1896 The Sketch said of him, "No playgoer will ever call to mind the name of Mr. Alfred Maltby without thinking of his wonderful performance of Samuel Dawson, B.A., the private tutor in Betsy"."Mr Alfred Maltby", The Sketch, 2 September 1896, p. 242 For the first production, Maltby contributed further by writing a two-act curtain raiser, a "comic drama" called Jilted, Pemberton, p. 27 which The Era later described as one of his cleverest achievements as a writer". At the Criterion and later, Maltby played his eccentric old gentlemen characters in such plays as Truth, The Candidate, The Man with Three Wives, My Artful Valet and others "too numerous to mention". The Sketch reviewer also noted that Maltby had "severe epidemics as regards the various kinds of old gentlemen he is called upon to portray ... at one time he had a very violent attack of fiery old colonels; at another, it was plausible scoundrels; at another, Members of Parliament."
