Summary
Twin constellations orbit the Maddern firmament: Leontine, fizzing like a cracked bottle of absinthe beneath the klieg lights, and Leona, who rechristens herself Rosalie Byrns to dodge the sulphur trailing her sister’s latest tabloid scandal. One prowls Broadway’s banquet of vanities, the other paints grief-struck widows in a candle-lit garret, until Lt. Gerald Cromwell—button-bright in his doughboy tunic—stumbles into Rosalie’s easel, leaving cadet-blue fingerprints on her heart. Matrimony is swiftly followed by embarkation; while shells gouge French mud, the Cromwell clan—oil-blooded industrialists—mistake the venal Leontine for the blameless bride and proffer a fat bribe to dissolve the union. Ever the opportunist, Leontine forges Rosalie’s name on the divorce papers and pockets the dowry. Across the Atlantic, Gerald receives the forged decree and a letter colder than a trench at dawn, sealing his bitterness.
Synopsis
Leontine Maddern is a self-centered, unscrupulous actress, while her twin sister Leona is a serious and compassionate artist. Because of a scandal in which Leontine was involved, Leona uses her mother's maiden name of Rosalie Byrnes. Rosalie meets and falls in love with Lt. Gerald Cromwell and after they marry, Cromwell is sent overseas. His family, desiring that Gerald marry wealth, approaches Leontine and, mistaking her for Rosalie, offers to buy her off, and she accepts. Gerald, now in France, learns that his wife is divorcing him and sends her a reproachful letter. One morning, hysterical and disheveled, Leontine bursts in upon Rosalie insisting that she has killed her lover Vasco Lamar and left her purse behind as incriminating evidence. When Rosalie courageously goes to Lamar's apartment to retrieve the damning evidence, she discovers her husband there. Gerald explains that he has learned the truth from Leontine, including the information about the Lamar killing. After removing the evidence, they find that Lamar is actually alive and the reunited lovers leave on their honeymoon.
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