Twenty-One (1923)

The McCulloughs agree to separate when Julian is seven years of age. His mother raises him according to her own ideas and fourteen years pass. He meets quite by accident Lynnie Willis, a poor girl, at a home for girls. He takes her to a dance, where he encounters Peter Straski, her affianced husband. Straski shoots a hole in the gas tank of Julian's car, and they are forced to stay all night at a hotel. A scandal results. The Willis family goes to the elder McCullough and the later agrees to a settlement which they accept. Julian, however, says he'll marry Lynnie and he leaves home. He secures a job as taxi driver, and when his father is lured to a deserted garage to pay Straski the wedding bonus, he is attacked and nearly killed. Julian, however, calls the police and saves his father. The happy reunion follows, with Lynnie waiting for him in the garden.