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The Power of Decision Synopsis

Wood Harding, the illustrator, first sees Margot, the model, at a sale of the effects of a poor old artist who befriended her. The auctioneer is belittling the old man's work when Margot rushes upon the platform and tells how kind he has been to her. Harding buys the picture that has been ridiculed, and makes her a present of it. From that time on she poses only for him, and the two fall in love. Harding has a wife from whom he has been separated for some time, but he marries Margot without saying anything about her. The real Mrs. Harding returns, and threatens to have her husband arrested for bigamy. To save the man she loves Margot denies that she has been married to him. The girl goes to a distant city and poses for Mrs. Hall, a miniature painter. Mrs. Hall introduces her to Austin Bland, a novelist, who falls in love with her and asks her to marry him. She tells him frankly that she already has given all the love she possesses to another man. Bland says he will be content if she will only marry him, and she does so. Bland is writing a novel called "The Power of Decision." Its central theme is that "Every mortal has within himself the God-given power of decision." By his own decision each man must act for himself in every crisis. The publishers have engaged Wood Harding to illustrate Bland's book. It is the author's wish that his wife pose as the heroine, and Harding comes to visit at the Bland residence. Neither Margot nor Harding gives a sign of recognition on meeting, but Harding tries to exert his old spell over her. Her husband's book seems to have a special meaning for her. One paragraph in particular fascinates her: "This was the turning point in her life. The choice between these two men, one bound to her by the holy sanctity of the marriage vow, the other calling from out the darkness of the past. Which road? What lies beyond? The power of decision rests with her." Gordon, the butler, surprises Harding in the act of attempting to embrace Margot, and later when she discovers him trying to open the safe he prevents her from calling the police, threatening to expose her to her husband. Bland learns the truth through Mrs. Harding, who sees Margot's picture in an announcement of the new novel. Bland has been asked by his publishers to take a trip with an arctic explorer, to write a series of articles. He accepts. Harding has been urging Margot to go away with him and she cannot come to a decision. She promises to signal him by switching the library lights on and off when she has made up her mind. Bland leaves in his car for the railroad station, but the machine breaks down and he misses his train. Returning, he sees Harding across the street watching the library windows, and then the lights flash off and on. He goes into the house and confronts Margot, who tells him she has been tempted to go away with Harding, but has finally come to a realization of her love for her husband and has summoned Harding to tell him so. Bland does not believe her. The curtains at the French window move and Bland fires at them. A man falls, enveloped in the curtains. Margot urges her husband to escape, saying she will take the blame. Bland finds he has shot not Harding, but the butler, Gordon, who has come to attempt robbery. Harding has hurried away on hearing the shot. Margot finally makes her husband realize that, like his heroine, she has chosen the right road and has exercised her God-given power of decision.

A Million a Minute Synopsis

Philip and Miles Quaintance quarrel over the love of Ellen Sheridan; Miles is rejected, while Philip is successful. Philip dies soon after his son is born, and Miles proposes to the widow. When she refuses him, he uses every means to make her unhappy. She leaves the Southland where they live, taking her infant son Stephen. When Stephen has grown to manhood, his mother dies, first telling him the story of Miles' persecution. He is so embittered against his uncle that he avoids meeting him, and he leaves for South Africa. Miles Quaintance amasses a fortune, and in his declining years he hopes to meet Stephen to make restitution for the wrongs he had done his parents. Miles has a ward, Dagmar Lorraine, whom he sends to Paris to study singing. There she meets Etienne, the Duke de Reves, who has an unsavory reputation. He makes violent love to Dagmar and obtains her consent to marry him. After the ceremony a woman enters the church carrying a baby whom she claims is the Duke's son. Horrified, Dagmar flees from the church and returns to America. In a whimsical mood, and partly to atone for the wrongs he had done in his past, Miles makes a will leaving his $10 million fortune to Dagmar and Stephen, provided that they marry and that the wedding takes place before midnight of the following May 31. Miles does not know of Dagmar's wedding and dies before she arrives in America. Stephen is notified of the contents of the strange will at a trading station in Africa. He decides he will take no assistance from his uncle, and with Timothy O'Farrell, a companion, he plans a way out of it. They find the body of a white man floating in the river, and Stephen puts all his papers and trinkets in the pockets of the dead man. Mark Seager, a gunrunner, finds the body and conceives the idea of impersonating the dead man, marrying Dagmar, and claiming the legacy. He sets off for America immediately. Stephen and O'Farrell also leave for America. They are in a restaurant, where they see a man abusing a young girl and using threatening language. It is the valet of the Duke, who has met Dagmar and is trying to blackmail her for his silence. Stephen drives the valet out of the place, and is charmed by the appearance and manner of the girl. She leaves before he can question her. While driving her automobile home that night, Dagmar has trouble with the engine. When she stops to fix it Seager, who does not know her, observes her predicament and attempts to take advantage of it. She frightens him away with a revolver. The next day, Stephen sees an automobile offered for sale, and noticing that it corresponds with the one driven by the girl he met the day before, he answers the advertisement. Dagmar sells the car to him as she is low in funds. That night the valet and the Duke come to her home and she flees, taking passage the next morning on a steamship bound for Paris, where she has left some money in a bank. Seager learns that she has gone, and he follows. Likewise do the Duke and Stephen and O'Farrell. Stephen, taking the name of A. Newman. Seagar finds Dagmar in Paris and tells her he has come to marry her. One look at him and she leaves. The Duke finds her and persuades her to come to him, saying he will lead a better life, and introduce her to his own society. On the night of the reception she is kidnapped by Seager, who takes her to a deserted house where he has arranged for a rascally advocate to come and marry them. The Duke follows to the house and is killed in a fight with Seager. Stephen and O'Farrell have followed the Duke's valet and arrive there just as Seager is forcing Dagmar into a marriage. It is just 10 minutes to midnight, the time assigned for the $10 million wedding. Seager is driven from the place and Stephen and Dagmar tell each other of their love. Both agree not to touch a penny of Miles' fortune, and after the clock strikes twelve they are married.