Mr. Barnes of New York

Summary

Archibald Clavering Gunter’s 1912 melodrama hurtles across the marble colonnades of Corsica, the blistered quays of Alexandria, and the roulette-obsessed salons of Monte Carlo like a gilt-edged fever dream. Barnes—New-York-asphalt in his veins, linen suit cut like a banknote—drifts into the scented dusk of the Paoli estate, where Marina, half-sibyl, half-ward, waits for a brother who will arrive only as a ghost. A borrowed English revolver, a seconds-long duel at dawn, and a shriek of gulls become the axis on which every destiny spins. From the lavender hospitals of a shell-torn Egypt to the green-baize corridors where fortunes evaporate, vengeance masquerades as love while love itself wears the mask of vendetta. When the final shot ricochets through the ancestral chapel, it is not justice that dies but the antique Corsican god of blood; what remains are two couples—American money and English honor—clasping hands over the corpse of an old world.

Synopsis

Mr. Barnes of New York, a wealthy American traveling in Europe, meets Count Musso Danella, who invites the American to visit his estate in Corsica. While there, Barnes meets Marina Paoli, the Count's ward, who is anxiously awaiting the return of her brother, Antonio, an officer in the service of France. A few days later, Barnes fails in an attempt to prevent a duel between Antonio and an English officer, who kills Antonio and leaves behind a revolver borrowed from a brother officer. Marina and the Count arrive after the English officer had boarded his ship, Marina swearing vengeance against her brother's unknown slayer. In her search for the English officer, Marina, the Count and Tomasso, her foster father, go to Egypt. They arrive after the bombardment of Alexandria in July, 1882, and their search takes them even into the hospitals filled with the wounded. There Marina meets Lieut. Gerald Anstruther who has been badly injured and whom she nurses back to health. Later they fall in love. In the meantime, Barnes meets and falls in love with Lieut. Anstruther's sister Enid. In Monte Carlo, Barnes and Enid meet Marina, Enid learning that Marina and her brother are engaged. Business takes Barnes to London. While he is gone, the Count, from Gibraltar, advises Marina that he has found her brother's slayer. His suspicions are founded on the fact that the revolver with which Antonio was killed is the property of Lieut. Anstruther. The Count does not know that Marina is engaged to the English officer. The Count succeeds in bringing the Lieutenant to Monte Carlo. Marina, through her love, has abandoned her vendetta, and the Count, through jealousy, determines to permit Marina to marry the Lieutenant before he tells her that it is the Lieutenant whom she seeks to destroy. Barnes, in London, learns of the conditions, and knowing Lieut. Anstruther to be guiltless, hastily returns to Corsica. He arrives a few hours after the wedding. The Count tells Marina that she has married her brother's slayer and endeavors to have her kill her husband. She refuses, whereupon Tomasso, the foster father, proceeds to carry out the vendetta. Through a mistake, Tomasso kills the Count instead, and Barnes arrives just in time to explain everything, recall Marina to her husband's love, thus preventing further bloodshed. He also succeeds in his own love affair with Enid.