The story
“As Beryl was ushered into the library at Darrington House, everything about this sombre old mansion, she told herself, must be like her grandfather. For the first time, she was to see and talk with him. Her mother’s life had been very romantic. Poor mother—once beautiful Ella Darrington—had chosen Captain Leo Darcy before everything else in the world! And, though her mother had been disinherited, and her grandmother had died of the shock of her daughter’s elopement, and though Captain Darcy always had been poor—were as nothing beside the devotion which, until his death, had bound together Beryl’s father and mother.
“Beryl crossed the great room and stood before the massive chimney place. The lion’s face on the andirons seemed to glower at her as velour draperies, filling the deep window embrasures, filtered the pale sunshine of the afternoon. The house was very still. Beryl’s thoughts just then were of her mother, lying in the cottage at Habersville. Beryl set her pretty mouth and chin determinedly. Someone entered the room. The girl rose quickly. Before her stood an old gentleman, scanning her from under his shaggy, white eyebrows. ‘I am Beryl,’ she said, ‘and you are—my—‘
“’General Darrington, at your service, madam,’ he interrupted.
“Beryl found it difficult to continue. Earnestly, simply, she made her appeal. With beating heart, she waited as her grandfather stepped to the old-fashioned secretary. Out of a drawer he took some gold coins and an antique necklace and placed them in her hand. ‘Not for my daughter’s sake, mind you,’ he said. ‘She has been dead to me these 20 years. I have made Lennox Dunbar my sole heir. But, I cannot refuse to help any woman in distress.’
“Beryl missed the train back to Habersville. Restless and exultant, she walked and walked. At last, in a dense grove, she flung herself down and slept. When she woke she realized that she must lose no time in reaching the railroad station. As she rushed into the depot, two men stepped forward. One wore a sheriff’s badge. ‘I must get this train,’ said Beryl. ‘What do you wish of me?’
“’You’re wanted on a grave charge—an exceedingly grave charge,’ he replied. ‘If I am under arrest,’ she faltered, ‘please telegraph my mother, at Habersville, that I have stayed in Darrington Springs—with my grandfather. Bert, my brother, will be with her.’
“The young man accompanying the sheriff vanished into the telegraph office. He was Lennox Dunbar. Between the time that Beryl had left Darrington House and the moment she had entered the depot, Lennox Dunbar had discovered the general dead in the library. Marks of a blow from one of the antique andirons were on his forehead. His will, leaving his property to Dunbar, was missing. The gold and a necklace were gone from the secretary drawer. The money and the ornament found in Beryl’s possession spelled ‘Guilty!’ The first day of the trial was all against her. On the second day Bert Darcy arrived. He testified that scarcely half an hour after his sister had left the mansion, he had entered it to plead with his grandfather. He had no knowledge then that Beryl had been there. Angry words followed, and the old gentleman seized one of the andirons to strike Darcy. Just then came a terrific flash of lightning. The general fell. He was dead!
“The following day the superstitious colored servants were prevailed upon to enter the library wing, and came rushing back, shrieking: ‘The Massa’s come to life! He’s come to life!’ Lennox Dunbar strode down the passagewa, and staggered back before the sight which met his eyes. On the glass door of the library, the flash of lightning had photographed that last scene in the career of General Darrington. Later, Beryl—in default of a will, heiress to her grandfather’s estate—was talking earnestly with Lennox Dunbar. ‘He wished you to have it all,’ she said, ‘I shall withdraw in your favor.’ The next instant she found herself in his arms. Love became their arbiter.”
Summary from Reel Life · 8 May 1915
