Plot

By the will of an aunt, Peggy is made her heiress, providing she marries Jack, the son of an old friend. Peggy is at college while Jack is studying law with an uncle and as neither of them has seen the other, each, of course, is not keen for the arrangement. To bring them together, Jack's mother invites Peggy to spend the weekend at their house, writing to Jack to be present for the same period. Jack starts for his mother's home in his run-about, while Peggy leaves by train. In the same village with the college serving as a maid of all work, is Tessie, a girl who needs watching. The mistress having left her jewels carelessly about, Tessie appropriates them and prepares to make a get-away. After she is gone the woman discovers the loss with evidences of Peggy being the thief, telephones to the police. The only description she has of her is dark complexion, wearing a white coat. Tessie takes the same train as Peggy. A halt is made at a meal station where Jack happens to arrive, he stopping for lunch as do also Peggy and Tessie, Peggy hanging her coat up alongside of Tessie's. Tessie, finishing her lunch first, cannot resist the temptation to "lift"' Peggy's coat, not only because of its value, but also because it will give her a better chance for an escape, as the white coat would prove an absolute identification. In the coat Tessie finds letters, giving the details of Peggy's errand and decides to make use of them, when she sees through the window of the station that Peggy is likely to be detained through the mix-up, until the train has left. Jack who happens to be there goes to the rescue of the girl when she hasn't money to pay for her check, her purse having been in her coat; also for seeing that she has sufficient money to buy a ticket to take the next train, he being gallant enough not to disclose his identity, so they are both still ignorant of each other's destination. Tessie is met at the station and, of course, welcomed as Peggy. Jack, when he arrives, is introduced to Tessie as Peggy. In the meantime, the officers have apprehended Peggy as the woman described in the telegram, she wearing the white coat. At her persistent appeal, they telephone to Jack's mother, who to satisfy the detective, requests him to bring the girl on to their home. Tessie, who is upstairs, overhears the telephone conversation and decides to move, and she hurriedly re-packs her grip, taking along some of the mother's possessions, and makes her escape through the window, just as Jack and his mother enter the room, with the intention of questioning her. From the window Jack sees Tessie jump into his machine and start off at high speed. He turns and rushes down the stairs into his mother's machine, which stands outside. It is a chase through several streets, Tessie in good lead, until a railroad crossing banked with a freight train stops her progress. Finding Jack gaining on her, with a motorcycle cop in the rear, who has followed both. Intending to hold them up for speeding, she jumps from the machine, making her way across the fields. After a hurried explanation from Jack the policeman joins Jack in the chase. She is caught and brought back to the house where the mix-up is cleared and Tessie is carried off by the detective. The prospect of an alliance with Peggy is as delightful to Jack as it was repugnant when he thought it would be Tessie.—Moving Picture World synopsis