Schande

Summary

Despite his promise to marry her, John Ayre, a stock broker in financial difficulties, breaks off his relationship with Jane Williams, the manageress of a fashion-house, in order to become engaged to Edith Lawson, the daughter of a banker, hoping that this will improve his financial situation. The engagement turns out to be a miscalculation when Lawson goes bankrupt. Ayre promptly deserts Edith. Jane, who can no longer endure living with her stepmother and stepbrother, certainly now they are aware of what there has been between her and Ayre, goes to America. There she soon finds a job as secretary to Henry Robinson sr, the managing director of the Atlantic Shipping Company, and his son Harry. Edith, left penniless after the death of her father, goes to New York where she is warmly received by her relatives, the Robinsons. At their home she meets Jane, about whose relationship with her former fiancé she has always known. Harry Robinson jr confesses to his niece Edith that he loves Jane and intends to ask her to marry him. Edith tells him all she knows about Jane's past. Nevertheless, Harry marries Jane who has come to return his love. One evening, after some years of happy marriage, Harry informs his wife that he has invited home a new business associate, the manager of a company with whom he intends to enter into a contract. When he introduces this man to his wife he sees from her reaction that this must be the man whose despicable behaviour almost ruined Jane's life. He drives the man - John Ayre - from his house. Beside the bed of their child, Harry tells his anxious wife that, even before their marriage, he knew about her past and that he had forgiven her everything.