Summary
Gilded-age marble chills beneath the boots of a dynasty in twilight: Mrs. Van Twiller Du Bois, matriarch carved from prim ancestral ice, exiles her only son for daring to marry a woman whose blood lacks the proper shade of blue. Fortune—an opulent, breathing creature of deeds, pearls, and rare first editions—will pass instead to Cecil Harrington, a velvet-gloved nephew whose smile is a stiletto. Into this mausoleum of hurt strides little Mary, eyes the color of an uncharted ocean, dispatched as living olive branch between estranged sire and granite-hearted grandmother. Unbeknownst to all, Cecil’s true vocation is nocturnal: he is the cat-burglar the penny press dubs “The Silver Moth,” and the Van Twiller safe is his final flutter before permanent dusk. On a thunder-hushed night he cracks the iron vault; Mary, sleepless, wanders in, candle trembling like a guilty secret. The matriarch bursts in, candlesticks raised like judgment’s own torch, and Cecil—cornered viper—spins a tale that paints the child scarlet with guilt. Sirens keen up the Hudson; officers swarm the parlor, peel away layers of deceit, and restore iridescent truth. Fortune reverts, but more vitally, marrow-deep rifts knit: three generations stand within one halo of lamplight, their silhouettes suddenly, startlingly whole.
Synopsis
When her son has married beneath the family, Mrs. Van Twiller Du Bois disowns him and decides to leave her fortune to her nephew, Cecil Harrington. She does, however, agree to educate her granddaughter Mary, who comes to live with Mrs. Du Bois in hopes of reconciling her father and the old woman. Cecil, actually a local robber whose identity has just been discovered by the police, plans to rob his aunt and leave town. Just as he is emptying the safe, Mary enters the room, and when Mrs. Du Bois comes in, Cecil tries to blame Mary for the robbery. The police soon arrive to clear Mary's name and arrest Cecil, and Mrs. Du Bois is reconciled to her family.
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