The story
His family tree contained proof that Percy Lochinvar was descended from the bold Scotchman who won his sweetheart despite all opposition. Percy was proud of his ancestry, but privately admitted that he himself would be more likely to swim the East River to get away from a girl than to get one. For Percy was bashful. He was deeply in love, but up to date had actually been afraid to propose. The girl liked him and showed it, but the young man could never nerve himself up to pop the question. The girl’s mother was an ardent suffragist, and she often referred to Percy as a meek type of man that should be controlled by a woman, his rightful ruler. Another suitor, a bold, self-reliant man, noted as a lawyer, artfully protested his loyalty to the cause of suffrage, and won the mother’s heart. The girl did not like the lawyer nearly as well as her timid suitor, but when the orator was selected to deliver a speech at the suffrage parade in New York City, it seemed as though Percy was hopelessly out of the race for the girl’s hand.
Poor Percy was a melancholy spectator of the beginning of the parade and saw the girl he loved ride by in an auto with his hated rival. The Percy went home and gloomily decided that life had lost all its charms. Fortunately for him, he glanced at the portrait of his bold ancestor, which was hanging on the wall. The spirit of days gone by revived him. What one Lochinvar had done, Percy decided, another Lochinvar would do, and then he seized his hat and started out to make history repeat itself. When he arrived at the grandstand he found the young orator completely surrounded by his own eloquence. The girl’s mother was listening with admiration, and had already decided that he should be her son-in-law. The girl was weary and inattentive. Young Lochinvar appeared, and with an imperious gesture bore her off. They returned later, just as the orator had completed his speech, and informed him that they had ‘just stepped out and got married.’
Summary from The Moving Picture World · 5 July 1913
