- John Loyal, a hard-working bookkeeper, adopts Elsie, a five-year-old orphan. About this time John receives notice that he has come into a substantial inheritance. His employer, Scruggs is a close-fisted man and becomes covetous of John's newly-acquired wealth. Scruggs' household expenses have been greatly increased by the sudden arrival of his niece, Nell Wharton, a stranded musical comedy queen, and the greedy old man sees a scheme to effect a marriage between John and Nell, and in time secure, through Nell, a large portion of John's money. John, realizing the need of a mother for Elsie, ultimately falls a victim to Scruggs' plan and weds Nell. Having been accustomed to widely different environments, and possessing temperaments of marked contrast, Nell and John find themselves soon drifting into unhappiness. John, still the plodding bookkeeper, maintains his simple ideals and mingles with his plain-living neighbors as of old. Nell chooses her companions from among the Bohemian set, and little Elsie soon begins to bear the ill effects of the marital discontent. Scruggs is the ultimate recipient of many checks made out in favor of Nell, through his agreement with Nell to share alike all money she can wheedle out of John. At the same time, Nell, becoming desperate because of the restraints imposed through her simple mode of living, accepts the attentions of Hill, her former theatrical manager. Hill arranges a banquet for Nell's benefit at which he plans for her to meet her former theatrical associates and yield to his wishes to renew her former contract as an actress. Nell, in attending the banquet, leaves Elsie unwell at home. At the banquet, she soon agrees to comply with Hill's wishes and leave with him the following day. Meanwhile John has returned home from night-work to discover Elsie growing rapidly worse. He has previously suspected Nell's growing intimacy with Hill, and now finds the note urging Nell to attend the banquet. In a rage he journeys to the fashionable café where the banquet is in progress, and in sternly forcing Nell to accompany him home, he knocks down Hill, who heightens the sensational scene by trying to oppose John in taking Nell away. John scores Nell severely after he has led her to the bedside of the sick child. Nell, in rage and humiliation, locks herself in her room. Meanwhile the enraged Hill, armed, enters the house with the intention of shooting John. Before he can fire, Elsie, who has heard the sound of the conflict, rushes into the hallway in time to receive the bullet intended for John. Hill is arrested while John hurries medical aid to the child. During the long weeks while Elsie is nursed to convalescence, Nell has ample time in which to regret and seek forgiveness. She confesses everything that led to her marriage with John, but pleads so earnestly to be allowed the privilege of proving herself a real wife and mother that John forgives. Soon John's old-time friends gather at his house, as formerly, and both he and Nell find the happiness that has been denied them through selfishness and misunderstanding.—Moving Picture World synopsis
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