STORY

Anna Little is a stenographer in the office of William Wharton, a broker, who also employs her old grandfather as a clerk. The grandfather has an addiction to drink. Anna is secretly engaged to Tom Mason, a young civil engineer, who is at present engaged in the building of a railroad out west. Wharton does not know of this engagement, and one day he finds the old grandfather stealing money from his desk. The grandfather, thinking Wharton will send him to prison, appeals to the granddaughter to save him, and Wharton in a moment of weakness, thinking that he could make the girl love him, lets the old man think that he will send him to jail unless Anna will marry him. A vision of the poor, wrinkled old face behind the bars is too much for Anna and she consents. Wharton, after they are married, notices that his wife is distant to him, but does not press his love, as he thinks to win her with kindness and consideration. He is unsuccessful, however, and Anna constantly thinks of Tom, to whom she has returned her tiny engagement ring with a brief note, saying that the engagement is off. She is seated in the garden of her home when Wharton slips up behind her and clasps a string of pearls around her neck. She pulls them from her violently and casts them on the ground, but after Wharton leaves she gathers them up. While seated in her sitting-room, gazing at the picture of Tom in his grading camp, Wharton suddenly enters and discovers that his wife loves another and he immediately decides to give her a chance to free herself. He makes a bargain with a notorious actress to play the part with him, and a scandal about the two is soon started. Tom, in the interim, has returned to the city, successful, and is an onlooker at the trials and tribulations that confront his former sweetheart. Wharton even pretends drunkenness to shock his wife, and when she objects, he asks her why she doesn’t get a divorce if she doesn’t like it. Wharton, in order to fully disgust his wife, takes the actress to his own home and announces to his horror-stricken wife that the girl has come to visit them. The shock of the visit is too much for Anna, and she succumbs to the nervous breakdown. The housekeeper calls at the club in order to find the husband, but no one is there except Tom, who, after searching for Wharton, goes to the Wharton home. He sits up all night with his former sweetheart and keeps her delirium down. Wharton returns the next day, but as soon as he enters his wife’s presence she raves again. In a while her health improves and Wharton decides to go away forever, so he leaves a note telling her the truth about his actions and that she may be happy with the man she loves. She awakens and finds the note, but in the interim the old grandfather, who has drunk himself to semi-consciousness, sets fire to his room. Wharton, who has just left the house, returns, rescues the old man and also carries his wife into the garden. She tugs feebly at a string around her neck and suspended thereto, in a little bag. is a string of broken pearls. Wharton then realizes that his wife loves him and him alone, and he takes her to his arms, while Tom, renouncing his hope, steals away.
Written By: Moving Picture World