Bought

Summary

A penurious scribbler, Horace Frambers, trades his name for a banknote–studded parachute when he weds the pregnant, Titanic–widowed Helen Talbot, her reputation listing like the very liner that swallowed her first suitor. The infant’s death turns the marriage into a cryptic ledger: ten thousand dollars on one side, a coffin on the other. While Helen’s father, Midas in a top-hat, warms to the sham son-in-law, Helen herself treats Horace like a receipt she can crumple—until he refunds the bribe, crawls back into poverty, and rescues the Talbot empire from bankruptcy. Fevered, half-dead, he awakens to find the contract of their hearts rewritten in invisible ink: affection unbought, forgiveness unmoored from price.

Synopsis

Horace Frambers, an impecunious literary man receives the following offer: Helen Talbot, daughter of a rich financier, has trusted her lover not wisely but too well. She is about to become a mother. Her lover went down on the Titanic. If Frambers will marry Helen Talbot and save her name he will receive $10,000 and a position in Mr. Talbot's office. Frambers marries Helen; the child dies. Mr. Talbot gradually trusts and likes Frambers, but Helen despises her "bought" husband and intrigues with other men. So Frambers resigns his position and pays her back her $10,000. He deserts her and tells her to get a divorce. Talbot's business is failing and Frambers helps him recover it. Then Frambers returns to his room to die, as he thinks, but when he recovers from his illness he finds Helen by his side. She loves him and they are made happy with a happiness that has not been "bought."