The story
“Jack Darcy finds it is hard to make a living in a great city, no matter what certain rich men may say, and is naturally overjoyed to receive word that he has inherited $50,000, left by a great uncle, who had severely neglected him in life. There is only one unpleasant string attached to the gift. To win it, Jack must, within one year, wed the daughter of the uncle’s friend, a woman he has never met. That condition does not seem so terrible until Jack has met the lady fair. She has a kind face, but she looks like twins. Jack makes a great hit with her; she causes Jack an awful shock. He would have given up the task at once had it not been for the lawyer, who tells him that he has a year to think it over, not to be hasty. Also, one can never tell what a woman will look like in a year, and this lady fair may look even better, and it is certain that any change will be improvement. So Jack, while not committing himself, decides to suspend judgment. The daughter of the uncle’s friend does the best she knows how to train down. She wants to be a slim athlete, and goes through torturing training, without result.
“The lawyer, with an amiable desire to get Jack accustomed to the woman, invites both to a house party at his seaside home, and there Jack decides to stop becoming an heir. He sees a young girl who has all the grace he admires in a woman. She is an excellent swimmer, too, and when in a race she easily defeats Jack and several other men, he realizes that even $50,000 is not much money under certain circumstances. And this belief is intensified when he sees the fat girl in a bathing suit, nearly dies of exhaustion on trying to rescue her in deep water. He goes to the lawyer, and firmly informs him that he does not want the money, it can go to a charity or any other old thing. The lawyer questions him, and finds that his mind is made up. Then he produces a codicil to the uncle’s will, to be enforced only if the young man refuses to marry the girl. In that case, the uncle says, he admires the boy’s manly spirit, applauds him for his refusal to accept dictation—and doubles the legacy. All of which shows that sometimes it pays not to be mercenary, and that virtue is occasionally well paid. But as nobody loves a fat woman, the outcome of the matter did not exactly please the daughter of the friend of Jack’s great uncle.”
Summary from The Moving Picture World · 12 August 1911
