Gypsy Love
Summary
Blanche, starved of affection by her absentee husband Herve, drifts into the orbit of Guido, whose ardent letters become ticking grenades once entrusted to the mayor’s wife. A single misdelivered visit detonates bourgeois respectability: Mayor Ruisor, reading “your husband has a parent’s right to our little girl,” kidnaps his own sleeping child and barters her to a gold-hungry gypsy chieftain for exile under canvas skies. The girl, rechristened in campfire smoke, pirouettes from toddler to twilight dancer, her identity dissolved in cauldron of tambourines and wolfish nobles. Erik, a bronze-skinned tightrope dreamer, snatches her from auction, and together they somersault into the limelight as the “Black Devils,” spangles against the soot of provincial fairgrounds. Fate, wearing the epaulettes of a Minister of War, finally recognizes the swarched birthmark of kinship; a last con trick of swapped maidens unravels, and the circus girl must decide whether the gilded cage of legitimacy outshines the caravan of liberty.
Synopsis
Herve has neglected his wife, Blanche, and has left her for weeks at a time, while he amused himself on the Riviera and at Monte Carlo. Blanche's loneliness has been relieved by Guido, and their friendship has finally culminated in an unwise, attachment. Blanche, not daring to entrust Guido's love letters to the post, gives the packet to Mme. Ruisor, the wife of the Mayor of Naples, and writes Guido telling him to call on Mme. Ruisor and obtain them. Guido calls at the Mayor's residence expecting to obtain the letters from Madam Ruisor, but is received by the Mayor. Guido, at a loss to explain his call on Mme. Ruisor, the Mayor's suspicions are aroused, and he searches his wife's writing-desk where he discovers the packet of letters. His horrible fear seems confirmed by the first letter he sees, "I cannot bear to think your husband has a parent's right to our little girl." It happens that Gyamar at this time applies to the mayor for a permit allowing his band of gypsies to encamp in the city. When the Mayor Ruisor suddenly conceiving a fiendishly cruel revenge upon his supposedly unfaithful wife, goes to the nursery, seizes his infant daughter, Dolly, rushes with her to his office and hands her over with a purse of gold to Gyamar and commands him to leave immediately with the child for parts unknown. Gyamar obeys forthwith. When his wife returns the mayor realizes his blunder, but all efforts to recover their child prove futile. Little Dolly is soon accustomed to her nomadic life and she and little Azucena have become inseparable friends. It is not until Dolly is about eighteen years old that a decisive turning point occurs in her life. Old Gyamar's lust for gold has led him to sell the now beautiful gypsy dancer to an infamous nobleman of great wealth, but Erik, a young gypsy, aided by Dolly's loyal friend Azucena, succeed in saving Dolly who now throws in her lot with the youth. Erik, feeling justified in leaving Gyamar. At the first inn Dolly and Erik enter, two acrobats induce the young people to join them and form an acrobatic troupe. They agree and after much rehearsing Erik and Dolly become skillful members of the "Black Devils" as they style their troupe. Dolly's father is now Minister of War. On one of his horseback rides he meets an old gypsy and inquires of her if she ever visited the town before. She refers him to the gypsy chieftain, and he recognizes old Gyamar. He is overjoyed and promises Gyamar anything within his power if he will but restore his daughter. The old man cannot forego this opportunity of gain and bethinks him of Azucena. He presents Azucena as the missing Dolly and Ruisor is delighted with her. The joy of the parents is of short duration, for Azucena, overwhelmed by the love showered upon her by her supposed parents, is unable to continue the deception and she confesses that she is not Dolly but Azucena. With this clue and every power of the government at his command the Minister of War soon learns the whereabouts of the "Black Devils." It requires no second glimpse from Madam Ruisor to reveal the identity of Dolly. Erik, the acrobat-lover of Dolly, is given a position in the government by the Minister of War by reason of the fact that he does not cherish an acrobat as a son-in-law, even though he be a professional man, and it is not long after that the young people are married.
