The Angel of the Miners (1914)

Robert Demont, a mine owner, wealthy and aristocratic, has among other employees a young girl, Sophie, who, by her uniform kindness and cheerfulness, has endeared herself to the entire community, so much so that they have given her the affectionate sobriquet of "The Angel of the Mine." William, the foreman, is in love with Sophie and wishes to marry her, but she is heart-whole and refuses him. One Sunday on her way to visit a sick miner Sophie accidentally slips on a snowy path on the mountain and falls into a ravine. While seeking a way out she discovers a new vein of ore, which she reports to Robert, and upon investigation it turns out to be a rich deposit. Black Dan, a dissolute miner, who thinks himself in love with Sophie, accosts her shortly after this on a lonely road, and when she refuses to listen to him, attacks her in a brutal fury. Her cries are heard by Robert, who is out horseback riding. He comes to her rescue, knocks Dan down and thrashes him with his riding whip. Black Dan vows revenge and awaits his opportunity. Robert escorts Sophie to her humble home, but fails to read the secret of her love in her tearful tell-tale eyes. Black Dan somehow learns of the new vein. His opportunity has come. Descending by means of a rope into the ravine, be waits until a group of miners, led by Robert and Sophie, are preparing to blast the rocks, and then throws a lighted torch into the dynamite, killing a few miners and burying Robert and Sophie. While they are imprisoned Sophie finds a little water and bathes Robert's wound, but as he is very weak from loss of blood, the heroic girl opens a vein in her wrist and gives him new life by transfusing her own fresh young blood into his. Afterwards, while half delirious from hunger and exhaustion, she confesses her love for him and he, mistaking a feeling of gratitude for that of love, asks her to marry him if they are rescued. After many hours of imprisonment they are found by the searchers and restored to strength. Robert takes Sophie to his mother's house and introduces her as his fiancée, but Mrs. Demont, an aristocrat to her fingertips, cannot endure Sophie's ignorance of the ways of refined households and shows her feelings so plainly that Sophie is very unhappy. To add to her distress, while at a reception, she discovers Robert and Lydia Seymour, a girl of his own station in life, together in the conservatory. Overhearing their conversation, she realizes that he considers himself bound by his vows to her while really loving Lydia. Though only a peasant girl, her great heart shows the true nobility of her character. She writes Robert a note that she has been mistaken in her feeling for him and can never love him sufficiently to become his wife, thus freeing him of his obligation, while she sorrowfully wends her way back to her old friends to resume her place among them as "The Angel of the Mine."