In the Dark

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Rex Mansfield, an artist, has achieved fame through hard work and his economical wife. Though they have been companionable in the days of their poverty, the arrival of wealth and fame estranges them, and Edith is left at home while Rex spends his days at work upon a wonderful portrait of Julie Duval, a beautiful foreign actress. Edith is dissatisfied. She does not yet distrust Rex, but it seems to her unjust that she must be forced to give him up to his work, after having struggled so long to help him. Then Leo Lechmeer comes into her life. He had been instrumental in getting Rex the commission to paint the portrait, and had been a devoted admirer of the actress, but when he meets Edith, he seems to find in her a more congenial companion. Craftily Lechmeer plants in her mind the seeds of distrust, and though Edith knows that she loves Rex, she is slowly slipping into the clutches of Lechmeer. During the sittings at the studio Julie has fallen deeply in love with Rex and takes his admiration as evidence of his love for her. When the portrait is completed she throws herself into his arms. Rex is dumbfounded. He tells Julie bluntly that she has misunderstood him, that his admiration has been only that of the artist. In a mad desire for revenge for her injured pride, the actress seizes a bottle of etching acid and throws it into Rex's eyes, completely blinding him. Then she leaves him. Rex phones the specialist, Dr. McVicar, who treats him. but who gives him no hope of recovering his sight. Rex makes the doctor promise to keep the truth from Edith and to say that it was all an accident. Though Edith is heartbroken, she yet feels that Rex is holding something back, and comes to believe Lechmeer's insinuations that Rex was in love with Julie and is shielding her. In anger Edith smears the portrait of Julie and agrees to go away with Lechmeer. Dr. McVicar learns of a new operation which might cure Rex, and starts for the studio. Edith has gone to Lechmeer's home that morning, and he has just started out to get steamer tickets. Directly in front of the house he is run down by the doctor's car, and McVicar, who is unknown to Edith, carries the dying man into the house, where he sympathizes with Edith, thinking her the wife. Then he goes to Rex. Edith believes herself trapped and contemplates suicide. Looking for a revolver, she comes upon evidence of Julie's love for Lechmeer. Realizing the truth, she rushes home, where she finds that Rex's sight has been restored. She is also confronted by Dr. McVicar, and knowing that he has recognized her as the woman in Lechmeer's apartments, she feels certain of discovery. Again she attempts to end her life, but is saved by the doctor, who tells her the true story of the accident, proving Rex's innocence. She rushes to him to find that he has ripped the portrait from its frame without discovering that Edith has already ruined it. Rex never learns of Edith mistaken escapades with Lechmeer.