The story
“Wealth does not always bring happiness. The girl was young, rich, but an invalid, and noted physicians who cared for her shook their heads wisely and gravely pronounced her case as one of generally ill health, a gradual wasting away. Her one trouble, although the physicians did not suspect it, was that the girl did not really care whether she lived or died. Life was tiresome, she had no one to care for, nothing to be interested in, whether the end came sooner or later did not seem to her to be a matter of much concern. Then came a startling change. The girl, in her invalid’s chair, was seated on the beach one pleasant morning when a convict, hunted by dogs and men, swam ashore at her feet. He first threatened her, then begged her protection. The girl listened with interest. She realized that here was a fellow invalid, for while her ailment was physical, his was moral, and it struck her that while no one apparently could cure her, she could and would cure him. So she provided a hiding place for him, supplied him with food, clothing and money, and aided him to elude his pursuers. All she asked of him was that he lead a new life, and this he solemnly promised that he would do.
“Time passed on, much to her surprise she heard from her ‘patient.’ He was not as bad as she thought, in fact he had been sent to jail for another’s crime and was able later to establish his innocence. Other letters told of his making a new place in the world and steadily forging ahead, each brief a message that he owed everything he had or expected to have to her. Not many months after the hunted and disheartened convict had stolen from her presence, the girl met him again. But this time he came to her a free man, his head erect, the joy of living in his eyes. He told her that he had come to pay his debt of gratitude for the new life she had placed within his hands, by showing her that the future held nothing but happiness for them both. He asked her to become his wife, but the girl, feeling she was a confirmed invalid, refused him, although he had grown to be her whole life. Then the miracle transpired. With her hands clasped in his, and his eyes looking into hers, he told her that she was no longer ill, that she was to grow well and strong for his sake. Standing a few paces away he held out his arms to her, breathing the one word, ‘Come.’ Scarcely realizing what she was doing, the girl struggled trembling to her feet, and stood alone, as she had not done for years. Then smiling and confident of her power to conquer death, she walked into the arms of love.”
Summary from The Moving Picture News · 27 April 1912
