Jealousy

Summary

A once-glittering Parisian patriarch, Jules Leroux, watches his gilded universe implode when a bank failure vaporizes the family fortune; the engagement of his eldest, Alice, to Robert Durand disintegrates overnight, leaving her clutching rejection like broken crystal. Exiled to a crumbling Norman estate, the Leroux women become spectral reminders of vanished opulence until a chance woodland encounter catapults the youngest, Helen, into the orbit of the aristocratic Marquis de la Tour—her marriage a blazing mirror that scorches Alice’s pride. Into this tinderbox strides the diffident Raoul de Gordes, whose ambiguous letter to the father—begging for “the eldest” hand—ignites a fatal misidentification: Leroux crowns the jilted Alice, while Raoul pines for the gentler Jeanne. On honeymoon return, Jeanne’s conjugal bliss curdles as Alice, now houseguest, stalks the orangery where a single toxic tree stands like a botanical Nemesis, its milky sap whispering murder. In a hush of silk skirts and rustling leaves, Jeanne sickens; Raoul shadows Alice, witnesses her milk the lethal bough, and sounds an alarm that corners the poisoner. With a scornful laugh Alice swallows her own distillate of death, scrawls a confession, and collapses beneath the very fronds that bred her vengeance, sealing her exit in a mortuary tableau of green gloom and rust-stained lace.

Synopsis

Jules Leroux, a wealthy hanker, lived in Paris with his three daughters, Alice, Jeanne, and Helen. Alice was engaged to be married to Robert Durand, but owing to her father losing most of his money in a bank failure, her fiancé broke the engagement. Leroux was compelled to retire to his country estate, where he took up his residence with the three girls. One day, while Helen was on a jaunt on horseback, she encountered the Marquis de la Tour, who was smitten by her beauty. He sought an introduction to her and after a short courtship, succeeded in winning her. Helen's good fortune only served to arouse pangs of jealousy in her sister, Alice, who had been jilted. About this time a young nobleman, Raoul de Gordes, became a frequent visitor at Leroux's home and paid homage to the unmarried sisters, Jeanne and Alice. But the former's charms gradually won him and he fell a victim to Cupid's wiles. His suit being favored by Jeanne, he wrote to her father, asking his consent to their marriage. But as his letter failed to state which sister he meant, Leroux assumed it to be Alice, who was the elder, and accordingly showed her the letter and offered her his blessing. Consternation reigned, however, when de Gordes arrived and stated that it was Jeanne to whom his attentions were directed. Then was Alice enraged indeed, and secretly vowed vengeance. When Jeanne and her husband returned from their honeymoon, it chanced that Leroux was suddenly called hack to Paris. He requested Jeanne to consent to having Alice live with her till his return, which she eagerly agreed to. When Alice arrived, she was given a hearty greeting. While passing through the conservatory Jeanne's husband pointed out to the sisters a poisonous tree, whose sap was considered very deadly. Alice took a peculiar interest in the tree. Soon after this Jeanne was suddenly stricken with a mysterious malady and in spite of all the doctor's efforts, she slowly became worse. While in the gardens one day, De Gordes saw Alice cautiously enter the conservatory and followed her. Watching, he saw her extract some juice from the poison tree and suddenly realized her intentions. He confided his suspicions to her father and the doctor and they determined to catch her at her nefarious work. When they accused her of evil intentions, she laughed at their accusations and drank the contents of a small phial which she had, to prove her innocence. This seemed to satisfy them and she passed into another room. But the deadly poison, which she had taken, began to take effect. She wrote her confession and sent a servant with it to her father. Hastily summoning De Gordes and the doctor, he followed her to the conservatory, but arrived just as she had passed into eternity. The mystery was solved and Jeanne recovered. But she never learned the secret of her sister's tragic death or her own narrow escape.