The story
“A young lord elopes with an employee’s daughter. The visit of a lady to her home causes the young wife to leave her husband. Years later the peer succeeds to his family estates. Approaching his wife for forgiveness, his entreaties are of no avail. He meets his daughter on the cliffs, and she by accident falls and is killed. The sight of the dead body causes the wife to seek the protection and consolation of her husband.”
Summary from The Bioscope · 20 March 1913
Another synopsis, from The Billboard · 18 May 19122 min
“REEL ONE: Rowland is the only son of an English nobleman and is destined on his father’s death to inherit the title and the state. His parents are desirous that he make a match suitable to his prospective rank, and their choice is Lady Valentine Chartiers, who has youth, beauty, rank and wealth. They communicate their decision to the young man and are horrified when he tells him that he has fallen in love with Dora Thorne, the handsome daughter of their lodge-keeper. Rowland had met her while out sketching and the charms of the young girl completely won him. He declines to give her up, and when his father threatens to disown him, Rowland leaves the ancestral home with Dora, makes her his wife, and they go to Italy where he hopes to win fame and fortune as an artist. Some years later, when privations have dulled the beauty of his wife, and poverty has taken away their romance, Rowland meets Lady Valentine and cannot help contrasting her with the woman of his choice. Dora’s jealousy is aroused, she feels neglected, and her only consolation is the baby whom she adores.
“REEL TWO: Dora Thorne, after a jealous quarrel with her husband, had left him and returned to her old home with her infant girl. Rowland’s mother, at his request, endeavored to care for the woman and child, but Dora proudly refused any assistance. Meantime Rowland remained in Italy, were he won fame as a painter. Sixteen years after, Rowland’s father dies and he is now a nobleman with a large estate. He returns to England, but his wife refuses to see him and keeps her daughter out of his sight. While sketching one day, Rowland by chance sets his easel by the place where he first met his wife. Suddenly a young girl appears and her manners and way recall the wife he has lost. He questions her and is overcome with joy when he finds that she is his daughter. Again he appeals to his wife, again she refuses him and begs him not to take from her the only joy of her lonely life, her daughter. The man sorrowfully consents, but the daughter who has brought joy into his life is with him but a short time. She is killed by falling over a precipice. The parents meet at her bier, and their mutual sorrow ends in mutual forgiveness. In life, the girl had failed to bring them together, but in death she reunited them, for they know that by consenting to forget the past they are fulfilling her dearest wish. And so, after many tragic years, the wife of Lord Rowland enters the home that is hers of right.”
