The Shadow of a Doubt

Summary

In a draughty Victorian orphanage, eight-year-old John presses a walnut-sized portrait of his dead mother into the matron’s chapped palm—an amulet for the brother he may never see again. Fifteen winters later, the same miniature, now cracked along the cheek, shuttles between rain-soaked overcoats on a Manhattan afternoon, igniting a chain of mistaken identities that will sunder and finally solder the fractured Randolph dynasty. John, silk-hatted and Oxford-polished, has crossed the Atlantic to practise law among the gas-lit towers of New York; Ned, gaunt from counting crates in a clamorous warehouse, drifts toward petty crime like flotsam caught in the East River’s black tide. One brother signs affidavits in copperplate, the other signs IOUs in the back rooms of taverns. When Ruth—Ned’s consumptive wife—coughs blood onto a pawn-shop counter, the city’s indifferent grid tightens: charity is a ledger entry, mercy a clerical error. Enter Alice, John’s reform-minded spouse, whose crimson parasol dots the Bowery like a drop of arterial spray; she will barter her own bodily safety for a stranger’s surgery, never suspecting the stranger’s veins carry the same salt as her husband. Meanwhile Henry Collins—panther-sleek, monocle glinting like a guillotine—circulates through drawing-rooms trafficking in the currency of reputations. A mis-snatched coat, a mis-read silhouette, a safe clicked open in moonlight: these are the tremors that topple dynasties. By the time the three men collide in a mahogany hallway, the miniature portrait has travelled farther than any ocean liner, becoming both rosary and loaded gun, absolution and indictment.

Synopsis

John, eight years old, is adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Randolph. Before leaving, John gives a beautiful miniature of his mother to the matron for safe keeping until Ned, four years younger, finds a new home. Fifteen years later John is admitted to the bar in England, a well-educated, refined young man, while Ned is a shipping clerk in a wholesale house. Several years later John comes to America with his wife, Alice, and establishes law offices in New York. Ned has worked diligently but has never gotten ahead. Trying to make both ends meet, he becomes desperate as his wife, Ruth, is an invalid. He comes under the influence of two crooks, and when he cannot raise money for his wife's necessities, goes with them to crack a safe. They are caught, Ned's plea for leniency is ignored by the judge, and he is sent to jail. Alice Randolph is interested in model tenements and John contributes to the fund. When she tries to interest him in the uplift of criminals, he refuses, saying money spent on jailbirds is wasted. Ned, released, starts over again under the name of Henry Andrews, but his jail record follows him and he cannot get work. His wife is failing rapidly and nothing but an operation costing $1,000 can save her. One of Randolph's clients, Henry Collins, is a subtle beast of prey where women are concerned. Alice has learned of Ned's plight and determines to help him. John refuses to lend her money for the assistance of a man he knows is a criminal. Collins offers the money, which Alice refuses. Haunted by the thought of the tenement sufferer, she goes to Collin's apartment and secures the loan. Ruth's operation is successful and Alice aids Ned in getting employment with John's business partner, asking him to shield Ned's past, and tell John that he came well recommended. Collins has evil intentions towards Alice. When he hears that John is going to leave town that afternoon, he resolves to visit Alice that night. Rushing out of his office, John takes the wrong raincoat, noticing the mistake as he reaches the depot. Placing his hand in the coat pocket he brings out the miniature picture of his mother, which he has given his brother Ned at the orphanage. Ned puts on John's raincoat, and finding in it John's deed and papers, rushes to the house to give John his coat. John comes home and finds Ned near his safe. As he attempts to conceal himself, John believes him to have come there to rob him and has him arrested. Later, when Alice tells him that the man he knew as Henry Andrews is his own brother Ned, John goes to the station and brings Ned back. Meanwhile, Collins comes to visit Alice, who is terrified and at his mercy, he being in a drunken condition. He goes direct to her bedroom, and after a struggle, she wards him off, running out of her room just as John comes in. At the sight of Collins, John is infuriated and a fight ensues. Ned intervenes just in time to save Collin's life. After a thorough explanation, John understands and forgives everything, becoming reconciled with his wife and brother.