The Moral Fabric
Summary
A marble-hearted plutocrat, Scott Winthrop, treats marriage as an iron-clad deed until his day-dreaming spouse, Amy, intoxicated by utopian pamphleteers, rewrites the contract in mid-air, trading anniversary diamonds for the trembling lips of Mackley Stuart, guru of a free-love sect. Scott’s riposte is a public abdication—one telegram to the press and the scandalous triad are shackled by their own notoriety, marched to the altar under the spotlight’s glare. Months later, amid Neapolitan espresso fumes, Scott reappears: silk-suited, smile glinting like a stiletto. With conversational poison he rekindles Amy’s nostalgia, watches Stuart squirm in the trap he once baited, then coldly slams the cage door on every escape route. In the end, the same woman who preached elective affinity is left spouseless, reputation shredded, while Scott strides away, satisfied that the silk thread he calls morality has snapped back to whip the hands that tugged it.
Synopsis
Scott Winthrop is a wealthy, matter of fact businessman who cannot conceive an undeniable right in another man's attempt to break up his home because he has happened to take a fancy to his wife. But Amy Winthrop, a romantic young woman with more spare time than is good for her, takes up with the notions of a so-called liberal organization and is in the arms of its leader on her wedding anniversary when her husband comes home with a costly present for her. She stubbornly announces that Mackley Stuart is her "elective" mate and that they are going away together. Unable to dissuade her, the husband sends word to the newspapers that he is relinquishing his wife to Stuart at their request. The publicity that follows practically forces them to wed. Later, while touring Europe, Winthrop runs across the couple in a Naples café. He manifests great pleasure and greets them as old friends. He congratulates them on their happiness and fills his former wife's ears with the same kind of twaddle that had lost her to him. With pitiless cruelty he pursues his campaign and the result he seeks is not long in coming. Amy throws herself at his head and he apparently is content. Stuart, furious, now finds himself in the position in which he had placed Winthrop. The three discuss the situation. Amy repudiates her husband and offers to leave him to return to her first love. Winthrop leads her to believe that he will take her back and then spurns her. Thus he proves to them that the fabric of morality cannot be lightly destroyed and is satisfied that he has ruined their lives as they ruined his.
