The Wings of a Moth

• Watchlist

Attractive and pretty, Alice Wentworth, who works in a large department store, very often receives the flattering attentions of the young men who are patrons of the establishment. Possessing that natural vanity of all good looking girls, she becomes discontented with her lot and longs for the ease and luxury of the handsomely gowned and wealthy people upon whom she is obliged to wait. Hector Merrill, a middle aged and prosperous-looking gentleman, who calls with his sister, to make a purchase, is very much taken with Alice and when opportunity offers, he asks her to make an appointment to take a ride with him in his automobile. She shyly declines. Upon leaving the store that evening, she finds Hector waiting for her at the door and he takes her home in his limousine. Pleased with the compliment, she joyously tells her mother, who warns her of the danger of casual acquaintances. To further impress her injunction, she tells her the story of the moth attracted by the glittering flame, falls into it and burned to death before it realizes its danger. Alice, thinking her mother somewhat straight-laced and passé, is piqued and resentful. On two or three subsequent evenings, Hector takes Alice to dinner at a "swell" restaurant, with cabaret attractions. Finally, he takes her to supper and engages a private dining-room, where he very subtly tries to ingratiate himself into her favor and passes her a glass of wine. As she raises it to her lips a moth flutters into the room, hovers about the lamp on the table and falls into its flame. Immediately, she is reminded of her mother's warning. Dashing from the room and into the street, she hurries home. Her mother is anxiously awaiting her belated coming and with a mother's instinct, she recognizes the troubled look upon her daughter's face. Alice falls upon her mother's shoulder and in tears, thanks her for her timely warning, acknowledges that she has learned a lesson she will never forget and always heed.