A Small Town Girl

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Pauline's uncle is the proprietor of the only hotel Maplehurst boasts of. The girl is an orphan and has been adopted by her relative. Dick, the young hotel clerk, is one of those "best hearted fellows in the world." His only fault, in the girl's eyes, is his rusticity. He is a country boy. Pauline is a country girl, but with a love of romance and pleasure implanted deep in her impressionable nature. A stylish young snob from the east arrives at Maplehurst. Pauline sets her cap for him, and it is one of the greatest moments of her life when she strolls down the village street with the dandy. The little hotel clerk is hurt to the quick when Pauline disregards his homely love. Woman-like, Pauline makes the most of the Snob's visit to the village. At the little town's social gatherings she appears in a beautiful pink gown, while The Snob scorns the village beaux when they show up at the country dance hall in their "store clothes." The Snob wears evening clothes, and while the girls of the village are impressed by his appearance in contrast with their brothers and sweethearts, the boys themselves despise him for his attempt to lord it over them. The Snob cares little for local opinion, however, nor makes any attempt to accommodate himself to village customs. The town boys are able only to hire a "rig" on Sundays to take their "girls" out for a ride in the country. The Snob, however, once he has won the heart of the prettiest girl in town, orders his high horsepower racing car and takes Pauline out for perilous drives for long distances. On one of these long tours The Snob, with cruel cunning, takes Pauline to a wayside inn. Outside the inn is a terraced garden with grape arbors hiding the diners from the view of passersby. Suspecting nothing, Pauline is induced to partake of a heavy dinner, and then, when The Snob sneers at her "countrified temperance," she sips slowly at a stinging drink he orders. Pauline takes the drink merely to please her companion and little suspects the sinister ulterior purpose he has in view. One drink follows another, and soon Pauline has passed beyond the point where good judgment rules her actions. Late that night they return to Pauline's home town. The chill air brushes away the fumes of the liquor from Pauline's brain and the deceived girl weeps bitterly in a rear seat of the big racing car. The Snob, at the steering wheel ahead, sneers to himself as he helps her alight at her humble home. The inevitable happens. The Snob goes east, leaving an invitation for Pauline to visit him at his home. The moth flies into the flame. She runs away from home. A year afterward Pauline is cast aside by The Snob. In a big city boarding house, where the good, the bad and the indifferent live, she gives birth to a child. She is penniless, and The Snob's people will not recognize her. The Snob himself is sent away west. Here he begins life anew. Pauline's predicament is seemingly hopeless. A procurer of women who lives in the house, is touched, and he advises her to make a living on the street. Another neighbor calls and advises her to commit suicide. Either of these things might have happened had not an elderly childless couple taken an interest in the case. They told her it was the greatest thing in the world to be a mother. Pauline writes her uncle for help. Dick, the hotel clerk, reads the letter and sends her money. About this time the uncle dies. When Dick becomes the proprietor of the hotel his first act is to go after Pauline. In the meantime life in the west has made a man of The Snob. He returns east to Pauline, but she scorns him and refuses to let him see his child. This time the man "paid."