Charles Raleigh is a cousin of Miss Clara Burton, and is secretly in love with her. She returns his affection in secret also. Time parses and George Conway makes love to Clara. She considers his proposal of marriage long and seriously and ...See moreCharles Raleigh is a cousin of Miss Clara Burton, and is secretly in love with her. She returns his affection in secret also. Time parses and George Conway makes love to Clara. She considers his proposal of marriage long and seriously and makes entry of it in her diary. About this time Charles is called to America to look after his mining interests. He arrives in time to find himself a pauper as the result of a terrific conflagration that has swept his property. He decides to make a new start, but finds the battle difficult. Meanwhile, believing Charles indifferent towards her. Clara marries George and is very happy. George receives a letter from Charles, saying that he has about given up the battle in America, and is willing to accept any position that George might offer. Despite the remonstrances of Clara, George invites Charles to come and live with him. His arrival, two weeks later, is fraught with much embarrassment by him and Clara. Living in the same house, they are naturally thrown much together, and soon gossiping; tongues spread scandal of the young couple. For the sake of her own peace of mind, as well as to stop the scandal, Clara beseeches Charles to leave. This he promises to do and takes up lodging in another part of the town. One day a gossiping neighbor calls and deeply wounds Clara by referring to the old love affair, Clara is found in tears by her husband, George, and confesses to him all that she has heard of the despicable gossip, George flies into a towering rage, hurries to his club, where he finds the husband of the woman who offended Clara and challenges him to a duel. In the meantime, Clara is panic-stricken, and, believing that George is about to light a duel with Charles, rushes to his rooms to notify him. From the club George goes straight to his old friend Charles to ask him to be second and to borrow his dueling pistols. He reaches Charles' rooms just as the latter secretes Clara behind a curtain. In the conversation that follows, George suddenly spies his wife's pocketbook on a chair. In an instant he seizes one of the dueling pistols, throws the curtain back and fatally shoots his wife. He then rushes from the house in the hope of obtaining evidence to justify himself in the murder. At home he finds Clara's diary, and as the innocence of her relations with Charles is made plain to him through the sacred confidences of the diary, his mind gives way and he falls across the table senseless. Written by
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