Summary
Mary Sudan, a fledgling tragedienne whose footlights have scarcely warmed, steps into the glare of a role that will either crown or crucify her just as her father is swallowed by the maw of a penitentiary for a theft he never touched. The proscenium of her life splinters; greasepaint turns to warpaint. Donning the mask of an opulent widow dripping with dividends, she infiltrates the walnut-and-brass sanctum of her father’s former firm, a place where ledgers perspire secrets and partners’ smiles click like safes. Inside this mausoleum of fiduciary incense she beguiles President Corday—an aesthete of embezzlement whose fingernails still itch for the company’s paper gold—until she lures him to a candle-struck séance where guilt itself becomes the poltergeist. Tables tilt, hearts capsize, and Corday’s confession leaks from his lips like ink from a cracked well. Yet the curtain does not fall: at dawn he skulks back to the iron vault to gorge on negotiable souls, unaware that Mary, the vice-president King, and two trench-coated nemeses are waiting in the wings to turn his final aria into a police blotter. Father is freed, lovers clasp hands, and the triumphant trio boards a honeymoon train toward a horizon scrubbed clean of scandal.
Synopsis
Simultaneously with Mary Sudan's first chance to play a leading theatrical role comes the news that her father has been sent to prison on a false charge of theft. Determined to find the culprit and bring him to justice, she visits her father's company, posing as a wealthy widow seeking investment securities. She is given a partnership in the firm and cultivates the acquaintance of the president, Corday, whom she invites to a staged séance; he becomes so frightened at her apparent possession of facts regarding his guilt that he confesses his part in the crime. Later, Mary sees Corday enter the office safe to steal valuable securities; however, the vice president, with the aid of Mary's evidence and two detectives, forces a confession from him. Mary and King, the young vice president, decide to spend their honeymoon with her father, who is cleared of the charge.
