The Masterwork of Francis Powers: Decoding The Little Gray Lady

Anna Gray is a quiet, high-principled young woman who falls in love with Perry Carlyle, a weak young clerk whose own extravagant tastes, and the dissipations induced by endeavoring to please Ruth Jordon, have combined to plunge him into both debt and dissatisfaction at his lot. He finds that his position in the Treasury Department enables him to obtain possession of pieces of mutilated money and that by pasting them together he can induce tradesmen to accept them for good bills and so add considerably to his income. However, the Secret Service men are soon on his train and only Anna's heroic self-sacrifice saves him from the consequences of his crime. Ruth discards him in his trouble, and as he realizes that her affection was inspired only by mercenary motives, while Anna loves him sincerely for himself alone, he is swept in a revulsion of feeling to a love for her which is as deep and lasting as her own. There are moments of the most tense and thrilling suspense while Anna is concealing Perry from the police and when she confronts Ruth and struggles with her for the evidence which will clear or convict Perry, the situation is tremendous as the two women struggle with all the fierceness of love, passion, and despair.