The Flat Next Door

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At a family hotel the rooms of Mr. Young Man and Old Boy are separated by the apartments of a young and rich widow, who is fortunate enough to be loved by both of them. Mr. Young Man with youthful impetuosity is the first to make a declaration of love and is accepted. Mr. Old Boy who is now treated coldly when he presents himself is so grieved that he decides to commit suicide. After having found the barrel of a revolver too cold to bring about a really pleasant death he hits upon the idea of hanging himself and immediately lays plans for his "taking off." When the crucial moment arrives he finds inventive genius is indeed powerless against the pranks of fate, for when he makes the drop which was to prove fatal the hangman's rope severs and the force of his fall carries him through the floor of his room into the widow's drawing-room. It happens that at the same time two robbers are in the room and the sight of Mr. Old Boy entering through the ceiling so fairly frightens them that they make a rapid exit. Mr. Young Man, who is in the drawing-room when the robbers enter, becomes so frightened that he flees, leaving the widow to the tender mercies of the rogues. The lady now pays her obligations to Mr. Old Boy in rejecting the young man and taking her rescuer in his stead,