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The Eternal Question Synopsis

Ralph Courtland and Pierre Felix are sitting in their Fifth Avenue Club discussing the eternal question, woman. Ralph contends that it is birth and breeding that make the gentlewoman, but Felix, who is a designer of fashionable apparel, claims in three months he can make a lady of any one he may happen to pick up on the street, simply by dressing her properly. An old organ-grinder and a young woman, leading a monkey by a string, stop in front of the club to gather some pennies, and Ralph and Felix decide to make her the subject of the test. The wager is for $25,000 and expenses and stakes are placed with Allen Tait, a young lawyer. Ralph goes to California, where his aeroplane is to be entered in a race, and Pierre, fitting out Bianca with beautiful clothes and installing her in a handsome apartment, begins his experiment. Bianca wears her new garments as if born to the purple, and is soon introduced to society at a charity ball and bazaar given by Ralph's mother, Pierre introducing her as a Russian Countess. Ralph returns in time to meet her, and not knowing her identity, is delighted with her. He pays her so much attention that Pierre's jealousy is aroused. Pierre, maddened by her exotic beauty attempts to embrace her, when he escorts her to her new apartments after the ball. She is so infuriated that she returns at once to the old organ-grinder. Pierre apologizes profusely, and persuades her to return, so that he may win the wager. Ralph and Bianca spend a great deal of time together. They are out horseback riding when Ralph's horse becomes frightened and he is thrown. Bianca is so overcome with fear that she rushes to him and pours forth her love in a torrent of words. Ralph is not badly hurt, and returning to consciousness, hears her and is overjoyed. He proposes marriage to her, and she accepts at once. Later Pierre reminds Ralph that he has lost the wager, since Bianca has been accepted by society. Ralph's affairs are in a precarious condition, and this threatens to ruin him. Then Bianca tells him her real identity. She is the daughter of the King of Montenaro. Being ordered to marry the Grand Duke Seridan, she has escaped to America, taking Carlo, an old servant, with her. Ralph rushes back to the club and prevents Allen from paying over the money to Pierre, since he is the one who has lost. Pierre, infuriated, vows revenge. He hurries to Bianca and forces her into an automobile. The Grand Duke has come in search of her, and Pierre promises to deliver Bianca to him. He takes her to the Duke's ship, which is in the harbor. Ralph, who has been notified by Bianca's maid that her mistress has been kidnapped, at once follows in his aeroplane, and Allen Tait gets into communication with the government officials to have the ship stopped within the three-mile limit. A cruiser is sent after the boat and stops it, but not before Ralph has dropped to the deck from his airship and fought his way to Bianca. Their immediate marriage puts a stop to further persecution from the Grand Duke.

To the Death Synopsis

Bianca, a Corsican, supports her frivolous sister, Rosa, by making laces. The sculptor, Manatelli, visits her cottage to buy laces, and sees her modeling in clay. Impressed by her talent, he offers her free instruction if she wishes to come to Paris. Bianca accepts and promises to send for Rose as soon as possible. In Paris she meets Etienne Du Inette, head of the Internationale, a powerful secret service organization. He and Bianca are instantly attracted to each other. Jules Lavinne, also in the service of the Internationale, goes to Corsica on a secret mission. He sees and desires Rosa. One day a mysterious veiled woman slips a note under Etienne's door, warning him to go to Corsica and watch Lavinne, who is a traitor. He soon has occasion to protect Rosa from Lavinne. Lavinne learns the assumed name Etienne is using on the island and signs it to a note asking Rosa to meet him. In Paris, Bianca finishes and exhibits her first piece of work, and it is purchased by a wealthy patron. She sends for Rosa, but a letter from old Maria tells of the girl's disgrace and attempted suicide. Bianca rushes to her sister, who is dying. She finds the note which lured her sister to her destruction. It is signed, "Pierre Renard." Bianca vows to follow Pierre Renard "To the Death." She meets Jules Lavinne, and instinctively dislikes him, but when she learns that he belongs to the Internationale she forces herself to be gracious to him, hoping that he will aid her in finding "Pierre Renard." Lavinne, determined to win her, avoids meeting Etienne. Bianca asks Lavinne's aid, and he promises to find the man for her if she will marry him. Having vowed to avenge her sister at any cost, she promises. That night Lavinne telephones that he has a photograph of Pierre Renard. Bianca asks him to bring it to her at once. Before he comes he writes a note which he instructs his man to deliver to Etienne. It reads, "Bianca is in great danger. Go to her at once." Lavinne engages tickets on the midnight train, and tells his valet to take his portmanteau to a prominent hotel, where he arranges to have a priest ready to perform the ceremony. He shows Bianca the photograph. She is speechless with horror when she sees that it is a picture of Etienne. Lavinne instructs her to ask him whether he was not known in Corsica as "Pierre Renard." When he arrives she does so, and he admits it, also admitting that he knew Rosa there. She plunges a dagger in his breast, and he falls to the floor. Unwilling to keep her bargain with Lavinne, she attempts to take her own life. Lavinne prevents her, and forces her to accompany him to the hotel where the priest is in waiting. No sooner is the ceremony performed than Lavinne boasts of having won her by trickery, saying that it was he himself who lured Rosa to her death by the use of the name "Pierre Renard." Just then the valet knocks at the door, and Lavinne admits him. Behind him follow the woman of mystery and two gendarmes. The woman is Lavinne's wife, and he is arrested as a bigamist and a traitor. He returns to Bianca the dagger with which she struck down her lover. She rushes back to her own apartment, to kill herself beside his body, but she is amazed to find him gone. Her old nurse leads her into the room where he is lying asleep. The medallion of herself worn over his heart has saved his life.