It Was to Be

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John Trevor leaves his village to make a name for himself as attorney and leaves Anne Winton, with whom he is in love, without proposing to her, as a result of his bashfulness. Later, Anne marries Henry Randall, but Trevor's love for her still persists. Randall desires Trevor, who has become a noted attorney, as a legal representative in a dishonest financial enterprise, and accordingly makes an appointment with him. When Trevor arrives at Randall's house, he first meets Anne and finds her unhappy. She warns him not to accept the proposed offer. Randall finds them conversing. Trevor advises Randall to adopt honest methods. Later Anne meets Trevor at a reception and confides to him of her husband's mistreatment of her. Trevor and Randall meet and a fight is prevented by a detective White. That night Randall and Anne quarrel again, and the next day Anne goes to Trevor to arrange for a separation, and White, in the waiting room, overhears Anne declare she could kill Randall for his abuse. White receives a note from Randall saying he fears for his life, and asking him to call that evening. The same day Trevor goes to Randall's home to force better treatment of Anne by threatening to push the suggested divorce, and just after Trevor's arrival White, ascending the front steps, hears a shot in the study. He finds Anne and Trevor standing over Randall, who is mortally wounded, both grasping a revolver in horror. Randall, before his death, becomes conscious and whispers to a detective. Trevor and Anne, at Randall's death, abandon all hope. An hour later Martin, Randall's butler, is arrested as he prepares to flee to Europe with a valuable diamond taken from a jeweled dagger in Randall's study the night he was killed. He has placed an imitation gem in the clock's surface and had remained behind until he became panic-stricken at Randall's death. Anne returns to her old home, where Trevor soon follows and proposes to her in the old garden where he had planned a life of happiness with her years before.