Nell of the Circus

Summary

A banker’s porcelain-perfect daughter pirouettes into the sawdust cosmos of a travelling circus, swapping chandeliers for kerosene footlights and signing away a dynastic fortune for the love of Bob Wilson, a tight-rope dreamer whose smile smells of popcorn and peril; cousin Philip Lee, all ivory cufflinks and reptilian patience, nudges her toward disinheritance so that he may slip into her velvet-lined shoes as sole heir. Four circuits of the sun later, Margaret—now weather-worn, luminous—returns with Nell, a moon-faced tot christened by the ring itself, while Philip, bloated on inherited gold, tries to buy silence for three thousand dollars and a sneer. One midnight ambush, a tent-wrecking tempest, and a falling king-pole later, Margaret lies limp beneath canvas shrouds; Prinsey, a chalk-smeared clown with a heart of vulcanised rubber, pockets the child’s birth-certificate like a sacred relic. Years sprint: Nell grows into a mercury-bodied bareback amazon, Marie the abandoned aerialist swallows bitterness for breakfast, and Philip, now a respectably venomous burgher, parades a new fiancée just as the circus rolls back, inevitable as time’s own wheel. Secrets clatter like iron hoops: a forced wedding, a forged silence, a barn that happens—how droll!—to belong to the very man who would erase them. When Prinsey is clapped into jail for trespass, Ned Tracey, smitten village scion, buys the clown’s freedom, then recoils on seeing Nell with Marie’s infant—misreading the tableau, condemning the girl he loves. Yet every circus has its final flourish: Marie reappears with proof of Philip’s bigamy, the birthright papers flutter back into daylight, and Nell vaults from ostracised ingenue to acknowledged heiress, marrying Ned beneath her grandfather’s frost-thawing gaze while Marie and her child are granted the hush of a safe spotlight at last.

Synopsis

Margaret, the daughter of Banker Morris, falls in love with Bob Wilson, an old schoolmate, who is now a circus performer. When Bob's show comes to town, he asks Margaret to marry him, and this she is advised to do by her cousin, Philip Lee, who knows it will result in disinheriting her, though thereby making him the heir of the wealthiest man in town. Bob and Margaret elope and, just as planned. Philip Lee finds himself the sole heir to Banker Morris's millions. Four years later the circus again visits the town Margaret now has a baby daughter called "Nell of the circus." who has a devoted friend in Prinsey, the clown. Philip Lee, knowing that Margaret's father has forgiven her, offers to pay her $3,000 to waive all her rights to the inheritance. When calling on her, He meets Marie, a performer in the circus, who immediately falls in love with him. Philip, offering the settlement to Margaret, makes an insulting remark, which her husband, Bob, resents. Later Philip waylays Bob, strikes him on the head and he loses his mind. A storm blows down the circus tent. Margaret is hit with one of the huge poles and killed. Prinsey the clown, takes charge of little Nell's birth certificate and her mother's marriage papers. Philip Lee follows the circus, and secretly marries Marie in a distant city. A lapse of eighteen years shows that Phil has deserted Marie; she is still in the circus with a child to support. Nell is now the leading bareback rider of the show, which, under a new name, visits the village again, and Philip Lee takes Ned Tracey and his sister, to whom he is engaged, to see it. Marie recognizes her husband in the audience, and Ned is infatuated with Nell. Marie sees her husband, who tells her he cannot prove he is married to her, and threatens to have her arrested for blackmail if she annoys him. The circus owner tries to make love to Nell she resists him, and Prinsey comes to her aid. The owner discharges Prinsey, and Nell says, "I will go, too." To enable Marie to secure the proof of her marriage, Prinsey and Nell give her all the money they have and take charge of Marie's child. They are forced to take refuge in a barn, which happens to belong to Philip Lee, who has Prinsey arrested for trespass. Ned happens to meet Nell, pays Prinsey's fine and installs them in his housekeeper's cottage. Prinsey goes to see Banker Morris with Nell's papers, but Philip Lee meets him secures the papers and refuses to return them. Ned discovers Nell with the baby, thinks the worst of her, and decides to give her up. Finally, however, Marie returns. Phil is forced to give up the proofs of Nell's parentage. Nell is accepted by her grandfather and marries Ned, while Marie is given a comfortable home.