The Woman Next Door

Summary

In a sun-scorched Mexican rail town, Tom Grayson—stoic, slide-rule in his soul—locks horns with a cabal of swarthy desperados who plot to plant him beneath the alkali; opportunistic huckster Lake, nostrils flaring for the scent of profit, overhears the scheme and sells the tip to a federale, earning the engineer’s naïve gratitude. Months later, back amid the white-spired hush of a Connecticut hamlet, the Grayson household—patriarchal Judge, wistful matron, dewy adoptee Cecelia—offers neighborly kindness to a veiled sylph known only as Miss Ferguson, object of pious whispers. Tom’s homecoming collides with Lake’s arrival; the promoter recognizes the recluse as Jenny Gay, once the brightest comet of the Great White Way, now smeared by a tabloid divorce that painted her scarlet. Cornered, she confesses to Tom: Lake’s obsession, a forced midnight tryst staged for detectives, a sham marriage to a banker who believed the headlines. Together they vow to wring contrition from the charlatan. Judge Grayson, roused from judicial retirement, summons federal bloodhounds; a forged note lures Lake into the parlor where hidden men spring, tape recorder turning, until the blackmailer’s tongue curdles into confession. Newspapers trumpet both exoneration and engagement: the engineer will wed the woman next door, scandal transmuted into small-town legend.

Synopsis

Tom Grayson, an engineer employed in Mexico, quarrels with some Greasers. When they plot to kill him, the plan is overheard by Lake, a promoter of worthless mines who scents an opportunity to make himself solid with the engineer. Accordingly the authorities are informed, and Tom is saved and Lake thereby wins Tom's friendship and regard. Back in the New England village, Judge Grayson, his wife, and their adopted daughter Cecelia make things as pleasant as possible for the little woman next door, who is socially ostracized by the village gossips because nothing is known of her former life and associates. When his work in Mexico is finished Tom returns home and thus meets the woman next door. Lake, hoping to obtain Tom's endorsement in a fraudulent mining venture, visits the Grayson's and one day is introduced to "Miss Ferguson." He acknowledges the introduction with a "Hello, Jenny." The little woman at first denies her identity and then finally admits that she is Jenny Gay, the former actress whose celebrated divorce suit was dragged through the mire of the yellow journals the year before. Tom, however, refuses to lose faith in her and she tells him her unfortunate history; how, when she was starring on Broadway, Lake had been an ardent suitor and had made life miserable with his persecutions. To escape him she married Ben Whittier, a wealthy banker, but found no happiness in the union, owing to her husband's fondness for Lake and his readiness to believe Lake's lies about her. Then Jenny told him of that night in the big hotel which formed the basis of Whittier's divorce proceedings; of how she had returned about midnight and gone to her room when Lake, who was secreted in a closet, suddenly stepped out. Before she could break from his grasp the door was pushed open and Whittier, with two detectives rushed in. After the sensational divorce, Jenny went to this quiet Connecticut town to seek peace and seclusion. At the conclusion of her narrative, they agree that the only thing to do is to wring a confession from Lake. This they plan to do. In the meantime, Tom's father, a retired lawyer, suspects Lake. With the aid of Federal authorities he is able to do this and on the day set, two secret service men arrive. That afternoon Jenny writes a note to Lake telling him that she has changed her mind about marrying him. Tom, Mr. Grayson and the detectives are hid in Jenny's house and, at the proper moment. Tom comes out and forces from Lake a statement of the framed-up divorce. When this is published, the announcement of the coming marriage of Tom Grayson and "the woman next door" is announced.