Summary
In the hush before detonation, Gunpowder Wetherill distills silence itself into a powder that could redraw the geography of war; yet one whispered syllable from a flirtatious under-secretary detonates a chain-reaction of appetites. Enter Hope Flannigan, a scullery wraith scrubbing grease off Sixth-Avenue plates while espionage blooms like mold above her head. Gaston—proprietor, puppet-master, would-be Count—dreams of pocketing both the noiseless explosive and the inventor’s ivory-skinned daughter, Irene. But Gaston’s discarded lover, Madame Claire, nurses a vendetta sharp enough to julienne hearts, and Hope’s sudden, irrepressible laugh ricochets through the kitchen like a bullet, sending the girl sprinting into the charitable clutches of two spinster suffragists who believe salvation is best served with cambric tea and moral lectures. Romance ricochets: Irene’s playwright beau Van, certain art imitates life, dons a waiter’s duck-tail tux to harvest “local color,” only to find himself balancing silver platters while his rival slicks back his hair and calls himself Count Tomaso. At a cliff-top hotel where Atlantic gales howl secrets through keyholes, poisons swirl in crystal, and a bell-boy named Adolph dreams of marrying the runaway dishwasher, every mask slips except the one Hope wears—until a jealous woman waves a promise-scrawled letter like a smoking pistol and the final unmasking spills across the foyer in a tangle of tulle, handcuffs, and shattered illusions.
Synopsis
In a short prologue, Gunpowder Wetherill, a millionaire chemist, discovers the formula for making noiseless gunpowder and at once telegraphs Washington of his success. The War and Navy Departments tell him to take the formula and proceed to Hampton Roads, where all tests will be made. The secret of the discovery is closely guarded. But an indiscreet young under-secretary lets slip a stray word to a reporter regarding the new discovery and the newspapers seize upon it and make it public. Into an international conspiracy to rob Wetherill of his formula is thrust Hope Flannigan, a little slavey employed as a dishwasher in a small Sixth Avenue restaurant conducted by Gaston, a spy employed by a foreign government. He and his woman confederate, La Belle, receive instructions to gain possession of the formula. Wetherill has a daughter, Irene, and Gaston determines to obtain the formula and marry the daughter as well. But he reckons without the sentimental Madame Claire, cashier of Maison Gaston, to whom he has made love in odd moments. Madame Claire precipitates a quarrel which takes place in the kitchen of the restaurant. On Hope, however, unable to restrain her laughter, falls the weight of Gaston's fury and she flees from his wrath. On the same day, Irene Wetherill sets out to attend a meeting of the Big Sisters' Society. On the steps of the lecture hall she meets the prim old Misses Alstyn and their nephew Van, with whom she is in love. Van tells her that he thinks the play he has written is "going over" and if so they will have a "dash to the altar." Van, on reaching the manager's office, has his play returned with an admonition to write about things as they really happen. Meanwhile the lecturer of the afternoon insists that no one is a true Big Sister unless she take a girl in distress into her own home and keep her there. Fired with enthusiasm, the Misses Alstyn, on their way home, meet the weeping Hope, whom they take home. Van, with very little money, feels he cannot marry, but Irene reassures him and begs him to try to go to Stormcliffs, as she and her father are leaving for a week's rest before going to Hampton Roads. His eye by chance lights upon an advertisement calling for first class waiters at the hotel where Irene will stop, and he decides to apply for a job to earn his board, disguising himself in his role as waiter and collecting local color as well for his play. He gets the job. Gaston, posing as Count Tomaso, and LaBelle as Mrs. Dardenell, follow them. Van's aunts decide to surprise their nephew whom they believe is stopping at the hotel as a guest, and descend upon him. They take Hope with them. The conspirators gain the friendship of Irene and her father, and Van, helpless in his waiter's garb, grows jealous. The arrival of Hope changes matters, for Gaston she recognizes as her old employer and walks toward him with hands outstretched in greeting. Gaston declares he does not know her and Miss Amelie Alstyn apologizes for her profusely. Hope unconsciously has won the admiration of Adolph, a bell boy. La Belle and Gaston plan to strike that night, Gaston gives her a tablet with which she is to drug Wetherill's wine. Hope, wandering alone, faces Gaston for the second time. He threatens to kill her if she breathes his name to a soul or tells of his meeting LaBelle there. LaBelle joins in and Hope, terrified, escapes. Van finds her and she tells him the whole story. Adolph sees her in conversation with the pseudo-waiter and tells the Misses Alstyn, who lock her in her room that night as a punishment. Van, meanwhile, comes face to face with Irene, who is angry at his neglect of her and tells him the Count is giving a dinner in his rooms for her and her father that night. Van is assigned to wait at the Count's dinner. After dinner Gaston takes Irene out on a small balcony and LaBelle drugs Wetherill's wine. Van watches, and when Wetherill becomes drugged LaBelle starts to rob, Van springing from his hiding place, accuses her, but she realizes that he can prove nothing. The glass is drained; the formula undisturbed. Irene and Gaston enter and LaBelle tells her that her father was taken suddenly ill. Gaston offers to go for help, but Van sends for the manager and detectives, declaring he has a witness who can prove who Gaston is. Then he starts to bring Hope. But Hope finding a note under her door from Adolph, begging her to climb down the ladder attached to the porch outside the room, and at Adolph's earnest proposal decides whimsically that she might as well marry him as go back to the "two kind-hearted old funerals" and elopes. Van, bursting into the room for his one and only witness, finds it empty. Wetherill is angry with Van for accusing LaBelle with whom he has become infatuated and Van returns home. Hope meanwhile arrives home with her new husband, and desiring to show him off to the girls in "Gaston's old place," stops in there. There Madam Claire learns for the first time of Gaston's whereabouts and, insane with jealousy she brandishes a letter in which he promised to return and marry her and forces Hope and Adolph to go to him with her. Gaston writes to Wetherill asking his daughter's hand in marriage. Irene indignantly refuses, but takes the letter, and meets Gaston in the foyer. There as she talks with him Madame Claire looms up followed by Hope and Adolph. Gaston's identity is proven and he and LaBelle are arrested.
