Summary
A callow collegian, Hugh Carrington, tumbles into the spider-silk snares of Olga Kilday, a sloe-eyed wanderer whose passport is stamped with the ink of bigamy; one moonlit month later, conscience detonates inside him like a sun, and he kneels with ring in palm only to be told the marriage bed is already claimed. When he recoils, Olga unsheathes the Mann Act like a stiletto, whispering that the train ticket he once bought her across state lines is federal manacle. Counsel is summoned, coin changes sacks, and Hugh—believing the ledger balanced—ascends to the moral pulpit as editor of Purist Magazine, hymning a solitary code for both sexes. Enter Lorrie Stuart, orchard-bred, dew on her lashes, bound for Latin primers and chapel bells; Dr. Allan, gray at the temples, courts her with Euclidian patience but is refused. In the college town she collides with Dick Baxter, a glib corn-fed Apollo adored by Margaret Winfield, her roommate. Dick’s promises melt faster than late-snow, and after betrayal he vanishes, leaving Lorrie with a womb-full of disgrace. Dr. Allan returns, midwifes her grief, and a tiny coffin under hawthorn marks the epilogue of that season. Bereft of sire and reputation, Lorrie retreats to an aunt’s parlor where Hugh’s crusading prose finds her eyes; she volunteers as his editorial acolyte, affection buds, and the two wed inside a honeysuckle hush. Olga, ever the gorgon of cancelled checks, surfaces with invoice; Hugh pays, then pays again when attorney Rodman Wray—part vulture, part satyr—black-bags Olga’s claim while angling to seduce Lorrie. One storm-cancelled train ricochets Hugh home early: he bursts in upon Wray mauling his wife, expels the pair, and the serpent’s hiss of Olga’s prior liaison injects venom into the marriage. Margaret, still nursing Baxter’s ghost, arrives to salt Lorrie’s wound; truths detonate, Hugh’s absolutist creed buckles under masculine vanity, and he flees. Only after Dr. Allan’s Socratic drubding does Hugh crawl back, discovering that the single code he preached was never unisex but merely the courage to forgive.
Synopsis
After he leaves college Hugh Carrington falls into the toils of Olga Kilday, an adventuress, but after a month of her his manhood awakens, and he offers to marry her. She tells him she cannot as she is already married. Hugh starts to leave her, but she threatens him with imprisonment if he carries out his plan, declaring that his act of paying her transportation across the state line constituted an offense against the Mann Act. Hugh calls upon his attorney, who with Hugh's consent, arranges a money settlement. Believing this episode in his life is now a matter of the past, Hugh starts out anew and becomes editor of the Purist Magazine. He advocates a single code of morals. Lorrie Stuart starts from her country home for school. Dr. Allan, a friend of Malcolm Stuart, an aged scientist and Lorrie's father, loves her and asks her to become his wife. But she does not love him, she explains, and cannot agree. In the school town Lorrie meets Dick Baxter, whom Margaret Winfield, Lorrie's chum, admires. Dick is infatuated with Lorrie and disregards Margaret altogether. As he promises to marry her, Lorrie trusts Baxter, but he betrays this trust and then leaves town. Lorrie goes to Margaret for aid and comfort but is shunned. Dr. Allen visits Lorrie and learns her secret and then remains to help her until after her child is laid to rest on the hill. After this experience Lorrie goes to live with her aunt, her father having died. There she meets Hugh. She offers to help him in carrying out his preachments. The two become friends and their friendship finally ripens into love and they are married. Olga reads of the marriage, as does Margaret. Olga demands blackmail and to keep her silent Hugh submits. He then consults his attorney, Rodman Wray, who, instead of serving his client, enters into a pact with Olga to extort more money for her from Hugh while he sets his ground to lure Lorrie away from her husband. Olga and Wray play their hands when Hugh is called away one evening on business. But Hugh misses his train and returns to his home to find his wife struggling in Wray's arms. He denounces Wray, who informs Lorrie that Olga was Hugh's mistress. Hugh turns them out of the house, then sadly turns to Lorrie for forgiveness, which she readily gives. Margaret comes to visit Lorrie and, ever remembering that it was Lorrie who stole Dick Baxter from her, taunts her of this frightening part of her life. Lorrie leaves the room and Margaret follows. Lorrie berates her guest, an argument follows and Hugh overhears the worst. He demands the truth from Lorrie, who tells her story. But unlike the woman, he could not forgive. In a rage he left his home and Lorrie. Days passed before the meaning of his action dawned upon Hugh. Guided by Dr. Allen, he returned to Lorrie, again to be forgiven, thus gaining a victory for the single code.
