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Bab's Diary Synopsis

Returning home from boarding school for the Christmas holidays, Bab finds herself treated as a little girl while the family concentrates upon the impending wedding of her older sister Leila to Carter Brooks. To remedy the situation, Bab seizes upon a photograph of a matinee idol and invents her own suitor, Harold Valentine. Brook recognizes the photo and induces the actor to present himself to Bab as Harold Valentine. When he appears at her door during a party being thrown in her honor, Bab, bewildered and frightened, decides that her sole means of deliverance lies in the recovery of her letters from the actor's apartment. Leaving the party, Bab blunders into his apartment, sets off a burglar alarm and is arrested. She is taken home and after learning her lesson, is promptly sent back to boarding school.

Marta of the Lowlands Synopsis

Marta is a beggar child, who is adopted by Sebastien, the wealthy landowner. Sebastien makes Marta his victim. He wishes to marry a wealthy woman, but at the same time retain his influence over Marta. He therefore arranges through Tomas, the hermit, to marry her to Manelich, a simple, untutored shepherd living in the mountains, a rough child of nature who kills wolves with his bare hands and knows naught of guile and deceit. The wedding is performed, Manelich being under the impression that Marta loves him, and being truly in love with her. Later he learns he has been tricked, while Marta, who had at first believed that Manelich had been bought with the master's gold to become her husband, finds her conclusion wrong, the honesty of his love compelling her own. Then come developments which make the drama one of the most passionate, intense, trenchant character studies ever created. Marta is a patient sufferer, a tragic figure indeed, as she bravely endures all the cruelty and indignities that are thrust upon her by the ruthless "master." We witness the poignancy of her grief, the restraint and the anguish of the oppressed woman, and her movements among the treacherous characters of her environment.