- Tomboy Bess Aiken grows up quickly when her mother deserts her father to elope with wealthy Easterner Vernon Treloar. Left alone with her father, Bess begins to long for feminine companionship, and when an opportunity arises for Bess to visit her newly-remarried mother, her father consents. The little girl soon finds herself in a fairytale world of beautiful gowns and extravagant luxury. Believing that anything her mother does must be correct, Bess soon learns to smoke and drink, much to the displeasure of Kirke Livingston, who loves her but fears she has inherited her mother's weaknesses. Bess disregards his warnings until one day she finds her mother embracing another man. Disillusioned, she departs immediately for her father's cabin, traveling through the woods all night. At daybreak, Kirke finds her and wins her hand in marriage.
- Bess Aiken lives in the mountains of California with only her father and mother for company, although she craves young companionship and the normal pleasures of girlhood. Her mother also is dissatisfied, for she is much younger than her husband, who is of the slow, plodding type, and she yearns for the stage, on which she was a star before her marriage. Vernon Treloar and his nephew, Kirke Levington, are camping near the Aiken homestead. He is a wealthy banker, and has taken a fancy to his young nephew, whom he has decided upon to be his heir. Treloar meets Bess' mother one day, and the two become friends. Treloar is later seen making love to Mrs. Aiken by Price Lovel, her husband's old friend, who loses no time in reporting the affair to Mr. Aiken. The letter orders his wife out of his house, and she and Treloar go to New York, where they are married. While this affair has been going on, the two young people have become friends, but when his uncle departs for the East, he also leaves. Living alone with her father and Price grows irksome for the girl, who longs for pretty clothes and good times like the girls she reads about. Camilla, her mother, grows tired of New York, and longing to see her daughter, returns to Treloar's camp. Bess is given permission to spend a month with her, and to her delight she meets Kirke again, and their friendship develops into a love affair. Camilla, however, wishes to break this up as she has formed a desperate flirtation with another man. In order to accomplish this, she plans to have Bess disgust and repulse Kirke at a masked ball which she plans and for which she designs a brazen costume for the girl, and while Bess is the sensation of the evening, Camilla and the man with whom she is infatuated creep off by themselves. They are followed by Bess, who has always believed her mother to be a wonderful woman. Bess is heartbroken at her mother's infidelity. Treloar unexpectedly appears and Bess, to save her mother, says that she is the one who came there to meet the other man. By some mischance, Kirke is also there and hears the confession from her own lips. Bess starts back to her father through the dense woods of the mountains which separate the two houses, and is lost. Searching parties are organized and the woods are scoured. The anxiety unnerves Camilla, who confesses all to Treloar. Judd Aiken, her former husband, and Kirke, then start out to find the girl and their new love for her leads them straight to her at the old tree, at the foot of which she has fallen, exhausted, and at last are made happy.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content