The Price of a Ruby (1914)
Amy Lester is employed in a department store. One day she faints just as Mary Starr, a rich young philanthropist, enters. Miss Starr takes her into her home for a few days. Yielding to a kindly impulse, Miss Starr takes a box of jewels and shows them to Amy. The heiress' attention is called away and in that moment Amy succumbs to temptation. She hides a ruby ring under the pillow of the couch and Miss Starr does not miss it. A few days later, Amy leaves the house. With the money which she gets for the stone, one thousand dollars, the girl buys new clothes and goes to a hotel. There she meets Ralph Johnstone, a rich man, who falls in love with her and asks her to become his wife. Realizing that she is a thief, her better nature urges her to tell him the truth, but she stifles her conscience and accepts. One day Amy reads in the papers that the ring has been missed and the theft traced to Miss Starr's maid. Repentant, she cannot let another woman go to prison for a crime she has committed, so she goes to Mary Starr, tells her the truth and begs for forgiveness. The other woman assures her that she will keep the secret and sends Amy back to her husband. A year passes. With the coming of her child and a deeper love for her husband. Amy makes up her mind to confess to Ralph. His pride is hurt. With cold sternness he puts her from him. Next day, when she approaches him for forgiveness, he hands her a check for $1,000, bidding her send this to Miss Starr. She takes the check and goes to her room to think. Suddenly she makes up her mind she will not accept the check, but she will go away, out into the world and stay there until she has earned, by her own labor, the thousand dollars. She leans over her baby's crib; she wants to take him, but knows that even this she must sacrifice. That night Amy steals away, Ralph receiving her note of explanation with the torn check enclosed. Sternly, coldly, he takes her picture from his desk and drops it into a drawer. In the meantime, Amy has secured work in a sweat shop and takes work home every night and sews late at night. Each day adds something to the little store in the tin box. The years pass. Her son, Dick, is now seven. The account in the tin box grows steadily, and her character has developed with the years. Sometimes, on Sunday mornings, she sees her little boy in the park with his nurse. One Sunday she does not see him there and learns that he is very sick with diphtheria. Frantic with grief she rushes to the home but pauses on the steps. The doctor is about to enter. Amy tells him she is a neighbor and asks about her child. She learns that he is very sick. She wants to go in, then remembers she is just a few dollars short of the required thousand. She goes back to her squalid room, and, while the doctor fights for Dick's life, she works all night. Early in the morning she is at the shop, and, getting paid for her work, adds it to her savings. Then she hurries to her old home and faints on the doorstep when she hears the doctor assuring her husband that Dick will be all right. Johnstone has her carried inside. She asks for the child, then she remembers the money and drops it on the library table. The husband tenderly gathers her in his arms. A moment later they go in to see the sleeping child.
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Domestic
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Worldwide
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GenresDrama
Short
IMDbPro
See more details at IMDbPro
| Filmmakers | Role |
|---|---|
| Harry Myers | Director |
| Eleanor Talbot Kinkead | Writer |
| Siegmund Lubin | Producer |
| Cast | Role |
|---|---|
| Harry Myers | |
| Rosemary Theby | |
| Jean Armour | |
| Earl Metcalfe |
