The story
“The husband was stern, solemn and never could understand why anyone should laugh. The wife didn’t have much sense, perhaps, but she was full of life and laughter. Why they should have married was a mystery; that they should have become a matrimonial shipwreck was hardly a surprise. A simple-minded old music master was their daughter’s instructor. He deeply admired the wife, and once when the husband had been especially ill natured, and the music master found her in tears, he told her of his devotion. The husband surprised them and ordered the wife from the house. Calling their daughter, who was only 15, he explained that the mother, because of her sins, was going out of their life forever. The girl, however, refused to accept the verdict, and cheerfully abandoned the life of luxury to follow the mother who had always fondly cared for and loved her. In due time a divorce is granted and the wife married the music master. They were poor, but happy, and the woman never regretted the choice she had made. On her death bed she called her loyal daughter to her and confided to her the care of her baby son, the child of her second marriage, making the girl promise to care for him always.
“The first husband heard of his wife’s death, and his thoughts turned to his child. He wrote to her, offering to provide a home of luxury on condition that she would cast out of her life the man and the child he hated. Her first impulse was to refuse, but the music master induced her to accept, and she realized that she would be able to provide the funds that would give ‘baby brother’ the comforts that he needed. The father was proud of his handsome daughter, and decided to provide her with a wealthy husband. The man he selected did not appeal to her, but when threatened with poverty, she consented, not for her own sake, but because of the sacred charge confided to her on her mother’s death bed. On the night of the marriage, the girl received word that her brother had been fatally injured by a fall from the window. In her bridal gown, she ran from the house, forgetting everything and everybody in her anxiety to reach the child. The bridegroom noticed her agitation and her hasty flight, and placing the worse possible construction on it, followed her to the poor tenement. There he listened and learned enough to satisfy him that his suspicions were unfounded, and to prove that the girl of his choice was a noble, self-sacrificing woman. Tenderly he went to her and told her that he knew her secret, and that there was no reason why it should be hidden from him. ‘Your people are my people,’ he added, as he extended a hand of brotherly love to the child, then turning enfolded his bride in his arms. And the girl whose life had been one of self-sacrifice, could see that she was entering upon a future of happiness and love.”
Summary from The Moving Picture World · 1 June 1912
