The Beggar Woman

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Maggie meets Dr. Holmes as she stands begging on the bridge trying to get a little money to buy medicine for her sick mother. The doctor defends her against some young fellows, who are making fun of her, asks her about her circumstances and sees her home, but her sick mother has already expired. Maggie becomes housekeeper to the doctor, and after having managed his home for some months in a capable and quiet way, she accepts his offer of marriage out of gratitude and becomes his wife. Margie soon learns that love and gratitude are two quite different emotions, and as one of the doctor's friends is making love to her, she gives way to her feelings and runs away with him, leaving her good husband and her beautiful home. Accidentally she discovers that she has trusted a very unprincipled person. They quarrel, and Maggie stands once more poor and alone in the street. She now goes through all the phases of a miserable and disconsolate woman, she has even to beg for bread in the streets as before. One day she meets her husband. They look at each other for a moment, but as he passes on she rushes away to throw herself in the river. At the last moment Dr. Holmes succeeds in rescuing her, and the unhappy woman is taken unconscious to her old home. When Maggie opens her eyes in the old surroundings the remembrance of old happy days comes back to her; her first thought is to run away from those who know of her disgrace, but at the same moment the doctor stands before her. She sinks down under his kind and earnest gaze, hardly daring to touch his hand. The high-minded man struggles with himself for a moment, but as he sees that the poor woman's remorse is real, he lifts her up and puts his arm round her, the poor storm-tossed woman has again found a haven.