Summary
In a dusk-lit Manhattan brownstone, two threadbare entrepreneurs—Paul Boudeaux, quixotic dreamer, and Richard Landers, pragmatic gambler—shuffle bills like tarot cards, their coffers hollow, their futures ghost-white. Salvation arrives wearing spats and smelling of bay-rum: Batiste Boudeaux, Paul’s flinty, fortune-laden uncle who dispenses affection the way a miser fingers doubloons. The septuagenarian’s purse strings loosen only for wedlock—fifty-thousand dollars to the nephew who takes a bride before the cock crows thrice. Enter Matilda, Richard’s kittenish wife, half coquette, half strategist, who slips into the role of Paul’s spouse with the silkiness of a glove, conjuring domestic bliss out of thin air. The charade breathes; Batiste beams; checks seem imminent. Then the old man prolongs his visit into a month-long vigil, and dawn’s early light betrays Paul asleep on the parlor settee while Richard slinks from Matilda’s chamber—a chiaroscuro of adultery glimpsed through keyholes. Into this tinderbox drifts Rose, Batiste’s starched yet starry-eyed nurse, whose glance ignites Paul’s authentic heart. By the final reel, counterfeit marriage collapses into genuine unions: partners pocket the windfall, Rose claims Paul, and even Batiste capitulates to love, wedding the couture goddess Mme. Julie. Fortunes pivot on bedrooms, corridors, and the fragile architecture of appearances.
Synopsis
Paul Boudeaux shares lodgings with Richard Landers, his business partner, and Richard's young wife Matilda. Paul and Richard are in deep financial trouble, but when Paul's wealthy uncle, Batiste Boudeaux, comes to visit for a night, Matilda suddenly is inspired with a plan to save the business. Knowing that Uncle Batiste will give Paul $50,000 if the young man marries, Matilda introduces herself as Paul's wife, which greatly pleases the old bachelor. Complications arise, however, when Batiste decides to stay for a month, and the situation gets worse when early one morning, he sees Paul sleeping on the sofa and Richard stealing away from Matilda's room. Because Paul falls in love with Batiste's nurse Rose, the partners finally get their money, and even the old uncle gives up his bachelorhood by marrying fashion model Mme. Julie.
