Pennington's Choice

Summary

A velvet-gloved Manhattan aesthete, Robert Pennington, pursues the boreal siren Eugenia Blondeau across the gilded salons of Fifth Avenue, only to discover that courtship demands a passport bristling with pine needles, bruised knuckles, and the musk of his own fear. Eugenia, half-wild herself, dispatches her beau to the glacial hush of Québec’s hinterland, where her father—a patriarch carved from cedar and iron—awaits to audit the marrow of this citadel of silk. Pennington, armed with nothing grander than a monogrammed valise and a brittle smile, must surrender his manicure to the gnawing teeth of winter, while a mirage of twins—Eugenia and the tantalizing Marie—blurs the boundary between devotion and delusion. In the crucible of spruce and starlight he is taunted by brawny brothers, starved in a siege of fists and snow, tutored in pugilism by a champion pugilist who materializes like a totem, and finally races against the stroke of midnight to rescue the Blondeau patrimony from the bureaucratic abyss. When the last echo of axe on timber subsides, Pennington learns that manhood is less a trophy than a scar, and love less a promise than a dare.

Synopsis

Robert Pennington, a wealthy young New Yorker, falls in love with Eugenia Blondeau, a girl from the woods of Canada, who is a guest of her aunt, Mrs. Allison, in New York. Eugenia loves him, but will not marry him until he has proven himself a "man" in the eyes of her father, Jules Blondeau. Pennington agrees to go to the fastness of the Canadian woods for the test. Eugenia gives him a letter to her father and tells him about her sister, Marie, who is her twin, and looks exactly like her. Unknown to Robert she hurries home, arriving there ahead of him. Robert is met at the railroad station by Pierre, a guide employed by Blondeau. Compelled to walk the long trail to the Blondeau house he becomes foot sore and disgruntled. His complaints arouse Pierre's contempt. Arrived at the Blondeau cabin, Robert undergoes a physical examination at the hands of Blondeau, who tells him he is "soft," but that he will give him one month of primitive life to better his physical condition. Robert goes to live with Pierre. "Marie," the supposed twin sister, uses every artifice possible to win Robert's affections. He becomes very fond of her, but remains true to Eugenia. Louis and Roland Blondeau, her brothers, who do not disclose their identity to Robert, make life almost unbearable for him in the woods. They quarrel with him and finally trounce him when he tries to defend himself. Another time they besiege him in his cabin for five days. He eludes them, plunges into the woods, and is surprised to encounter his friend, Jim Jeffries, the famous pugilist, who is on a hunting trip. Robert explains his predicament and Jeffries gives him boxing lessons. At the Blondeau house it is thought that Pennington had fled in terror, and Eugenia is broken hearted. When Pennington starts back over the trail he encounters Jean and a band of conspirators, who are plotting to get Blondeau's land. Jean has intercepted a letter addressed to Blondeau in which it is stated that the old French grant of land will soon expire unless a new claim is filed and Blondeau will lose everything. Pennington knocks him down and takes it from him. Reading the letter Pennington learns that $l00,000 must be deposited in Montreal by midnight to save the claim. He saddles a horse and races to Montreal, where he arranges by telegraph to have the money sent from New York. When Pennington returns to the woods he is met by Louis and Roland and accused of being a coward for running away. In a fight he beats both of them. They apologize for ever doubting him. The elder Blondeau is still doubtful of the young man's courage, when officers ride up and inform Blondeau that he has lost his land. Pennington then explains why he went away, and he is warmly received by all members of the Blondeau family, especially Eugenia, who confesses her artifice, after Pennington tells the imaginary "Marie" that he is loyal to her sister. Through a strange coincidence, they meet at the "Love Cottage," where they renew their first vows of love.