By Way of Mrs. Browning (1911)
Dr. Chester North asks Eleanor Eastman to become his wife. She tells her mother, who is as much pleased as her daughter. The next morning, while the doctor is busy in his office, a poor chorus girl enters and asks him to attend her little sister, who is dying. He readily consents and hurriedly makes his way to her home. Eleanor, riding down the street, sees Chester with the chorus girl. At noon on the same day, Chester sends Eleanor her engagement ring, and although she is disturbed by what she saw in the morning, she forgets it when she beholds the glistening solitaire. Chester asks her to go to the matinee with him. She tells him she will go, but by 2:00 he hasn't arrived, and Eleanor peevishly decides to go to the theater herself. The doctor cannot resist the pleadings of the little girl for her sister, who is taking part in the very play that Eleanor is witnessing. The doctor goes to the theater, and while waiting at the stage door for her, Eleanor sees with the chorus girl again. She returns her engagement ring to Chester with a note that she wants nothing more to do with him. Dr. North tries to explain, but she will not listen. He throws the ring upon the office floor and destroys the rose she pinned on his coat the night before. The chorus girl happens in at this moment to pay the doctor. He refuses to accept compensation and she notices his agitation, picks up Eleanor's note from the floor, and learns the cause. She hurries to the home of Miss Eastman, tells her of the doctor's kindness and how he saved her little sister's life. Eleanor, ashamed of herself, tries to make amends. She strikes upon a happy idea from Mrs. Browning's poem. She writes: "And the first time I will send a white rose bud for a guerdon." Enclosing a white rose, she sends it to Chester, but he refuses to respond. Again she writes: "And the second time a rose." She accompanies this with a full-blown rose, similar to the one she gave him the night of their engagement. To this Chester responds in person, and together they read: "And the third time I will bend my pride and whisper, 'Pardon,' when he comes to claim my love." There is but one answer that is silently expressed as they lovingly glance into each other's eyes.
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GenresDrama
Short
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