| Plot Summary |
Mary Salsbury loves Paul Chandos, who is trying to make a start in life in a small town. Paul asks Mary to be his wife, but she tells him she will never marry until she has either made a failure or success of her voice. She leaves for the city to have her voice trained. Five years later, Paul, now a successful businessman, is induced to witness a great star's performance, and there he again meets Mary, who is now known as Valeria Salsbury. After many meetings, Paul again asks Valeria to become his wife, and she consents on one condition, that any time she wishes to return to the stage he will allow her to do so. Paul consents. A year later, when Valeria gives birth to her child, she loses her faculty for singing. The doctor examines her throat, and he tells Valeria that she will not be able to sing any more. As days go by she becomes moody and despondent. Finally she can stand the desire for her former life no longer, and decides to leave for Europe to receive treatment for her voice. Valeria and Paul separate after a heated conversation, leaving the child in his care. In Europe Valeria is advised by physicians that there is positively no hope, and that she had better return home to her husband and child. This advice makes Valeria brood, and in a vision she sees her baby ill. Realizing she has given up everything for nothing, she decides to return home. When Valeria returns to Paul's home, she finds her baby at death's door. Paul at first refuses to allow her to see the child, saying that it is her fault the child is ill, having had no real mother's care. But she pleads, and he allows her to see the baby. Terror-stricken, she asks the doctor if there is any hope. The doctor says there is none. Then she becomes like an insane woman. She picks up the child, screams that no one shall take it from her, and then soothes the crying baby by humming a lullaby. As she sings, she realizes that her voice has come back. With this realization, she fights more and more to save the child's life. Paul looks at her sadly, believing it is beyond all hope. Late that night Valeria is still seen at the bedside of the child. Next morning, when the doctor comes he finds the child much better, and tells the parents that with real mother love the baby may live. A touching reconciliation follows between husband and wife.
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