Summary
Inside the chiaroscuro of Jazz-Age affluence, a prodigal golden-boy—Richard Chanslor—dangles above the void of disinheritance, his silk spats skimming the abyss. To placate a patriarch who loathes the sulfurous perfume of chorus stages, Richard purchases respectability by marrying Lois Page, a marble-dust-smeared prodigy whose bloodlines gleam but whose purse echoes. Their contract: rings without romance, separate bedrooms, separate hearts. Yet marble eventually warms beneath fingertips; Richard sheds his chorine paramour Lily Lorraine, while Lois keeps sculpting both statuary and emotional distance beside her mentor Bob Hildreth. One rain-slick dusk, Hildreth spirits Lily to a tavern whose lamplight drips like molasses, corners her among stag heads, and unleashes a wolf’s hunger. Richard arrives—tires shrieking on gravel—to find his faux spouse fighting talon and tooth. Husband and wife roar back toward city glow, silence thick with the knowledge that paper vows have calcified into something fleshy, irrevocable, alive.
Synopsis
Richard Chanslor is about to be disinherited by his rich grandfather who objects to his association with chorus girl Lily Lorraine. In order to please his grandfather while still maintaining his present standard of living, Chanslor decides to marry Lois Page, a struggling young sculptress from a good family. Lois accepts his proposal on the condition that they continue their separate ways. The marriage in name only is a success until Richard begins to fall in love with his wife and breaks with Lily. Lois, unconvinced of her husband's sincerity, however, continues her close relationship with her instructor, Bob Hildreth. One day, Hildreth takes Lily for a ride to a country inn where he attacks her. Richard follows them and arrives just in time to rescue his wife who drives away with him. Both husband and wife then realize that their trial marriage has developed into a real marriage.
