The Shrine of Happiness

Summary

A copper-baron’s pickaxe stills forever in the dust of a mine-shaft, and his only child—Marie, a porcelain figurine in mourning veils—rides the rails to the cliff-top mansion of Richard Clark, her father’s weather-worn confidant whose silver temples glint like assay ore. Under cedar shadows, the grizzled guardian and his callow first-born Ted weave rival halos around the orphan: one man offers the hush of twilight libraries, the other the crackle of college bonfires. Marie’s glances, candid as fresh dynamite, favor the elder’s steady heartbeat; yet Ted’s desire swells until it bursts in a moonlit proposal that she, with dove-soft firmness, declines. Accusations ricochet through mahogany corridors—son charging father with theft of affection—until Richard, conscience etched deeper than his pits, coaxes from Marie a vow to wed the boy she does not love. On the dawn of the ceremony, while organ chords bruise the air, a letter arrives: Ted has saddled his guilt and galloped away, ceding the field to a passion more durable than filial pride. Father and step-daughter-to-be stand amid abandoned lilies, suddenly free to inscribe their own legend across the vast parchment of the West.

Synopsis

Dave Scott, a wealthy mine owner, is killed. His daughter, Marie, goes to her father's old friend Richard Clark, knowing that he will take care of her interests. Clark and his grown son, Ted, become attached to Marie. Innocent in manner, she sees no necessity for concealing her preference for the elder Clark. In time, Ted's attachment culminates in a proposal, which is rejected. Ted accuses his father of standing in his way and the father makes Marie promise that she will accept Ted. A few minutes before the time set for the ceremony, a note from Ted explains that he realizes the love that exists between Marie and his father, and rather than exact the sacrifice, he has left his father's home, leaving them free to marry.