The story
“When Jack’s mother died she left him in care of his uncle, a miserly scientist. The old man hid the fact that his nephew was entitled to a sum of money from him and discouraged his attentions to May, a pretty stenographer, with whom he was in love. Meanwhile the scientist worked on a mechanical doll which he had fully clothed and hoped to bring to such a state of perfection that it would talk, move and eat. The nephew and his sweetheart were invited to attend a masquerade. Jack costumed himself as Mephistopheles, but May made the woman’s usual plaint that she had ‘nothing to wear.’ Jack suggested that she put on the mechanical doll’s clothing. Jack dressed, as the devil, and May, bearing a striking likeness to the doll, were about to leave the scientist’s laboratory when the old man himself entered. Nearsightedly approaching May he tried to get the young woman to obey his commands, believing her to be the mechanical doll. When he was about to give up the attempt Jack, as Mephistopheles, suddenly leaped before his uncle and told him that he, the devil, would command the doll to walk and make the old man famous. Frightened by the appearance of the Evil One, the old man tremblingly confessed that he had robbed his nephew and agreed in writing to make restitution. With the money thus obtained, Jack and his sweetheart were soon afterward married.”
Summary from Reel Life · 28 February 1914
