Summary
A frost-bitten patriarch, Colonel Jessup, presides over the gas-lit hush of Mayville like a Calvinist thundercloud; his wife, choking on marital ether, bolts with a threadbare theatrical troupe, clutching her small son Byron—later rechristened Buddy—yet abandoning the infant girl who will grow into Grace, the story’s trembling fulcrum. Years of sawdust and kerosene follow: Buddy becomes the swaggering leading man of a vagabond company that limps from whistle-stop to whistle-stop, its coffers rattling with pennies and despair. One bleak dusk the troupe staggers into Mayville to find the house miraculously sold out; hope flares, then is mugged by the manager who absconds with the till before dawn, stranding actors in a town that smells of damp wool and old grudges. Buddy, half-starved for both bread and belonging, cadges a job coaching the Jessup Volunteer Hose Company’s amateur theatricals, a rustic rivalry against Hose Company No. 1 that feels as urgent as Gettysburg to these citizens. Grace, now the colonel’s cosseted yet restless daughter, is cast as leading lady; her voice quivers with secret hungers. Enter Percy Pennington, a glib traveling salesman whose mustache drips honeyed promises; he courts Grace with visions of satin hotels and city lights, persuading her toward an elopement hedged by weasel vows. Buddy, love-bruised and vigilant, pedals after them on a rattling bicycle, legs pumping like pistons of conscience. He finds the surrey abandoned, the horse grazing, Grace’s scream cleaving the night. A scuffle, a torn dress, a rescued virtue: Buddy carries the fainting girl home through moonlit ruts, only to be met by the colonel’s righteous buckshot—two slugs, one of which is halted by the gold watch containing the faded daguerreotype of the woman who fled long ago. When Grace revives to speak the truth, the photograph becomes both relic and revelation: the colonel confronts the face he banished from memory, and the wounded Buddy—his unknown stepson—becomes the prodigal bridge across a decade of silence. Curtain falls on a household stitched together by bullet, photograph, and the fragile grace of second chances.
Synopsis
Col. Jessup of Mayville does not waste any affection on his young wife, who finally runs away with a theatrical company, taking her son with her, but leaving her baby daughter. Later, she dies, and the boy, Byron Bennett, known as Buddy, is leading man for a theatrical company playing one-night stands, but this season has been disastrous and the company is about to disband when they receive word that the house is sold out for the performance at Mayville, so they hang on. However, the manager collects the receipts for the performance and takes the first train, leaving the company stranded. Buddy secures a position as Instructor for the Jessup Volunteer Hose Company which is to give an amateur theatrical performance. He persuades Grace Jessup's father to allow her to take the leading part in order to out-do Hose Company No. 1, which also plans a performance. Grace becomes interested in traveling salesman Percy Pennington. He tries to persuade her to elope, but she refuses until he makes a definite promise of marriage. He boasts to Buddy and his friend Skinny and intimates that the promise will not be carried out. Soon after, he starts out riding with Grace. Buddy is suspicious and follows on a bicycle, but is outdistanced. At last, however, he sees the horse tied by the roadside, and hears Grace scream. Rushing to her assistance he overcomes Percy, and carries a wilting Grace home.Col. Jessup, thinking Bud is the culprit, fires at him twice. One bullet lodges in the shoulder; the other is stopped by Buddy's watch in which he carries a picture of his mother. Grace regains consciousness and explains matters, and Jessup is amazed to find that the picture in the watch is that of his wife. The doctor advises that Buddy will recover, and there is a reconciliation among father, son, and daughter.
