Tangled Hearts (1916)

Montgomery Seaton, one of the idle rich, makes a hobby of befriending everybody upon whom he can intrude his good offices. Thus occupied, he neglects his wife considerably, and she in turn gives her entire attention to household duties. Vera Lane is a rich widow with whom Ernest Courtney is in love but too bashful to pursue. Mrs. Hammond comes to Seaton in distress with the story that some years earlier, she left home with a married man and lived with him for several months. Upon discovering that she had been deceived, she returned home and later wed John Hammond. Some weeks after her marriage, her husband was called away on a business trip; while he was gone Mrs. Hammond became the mother of a child, the result of her conduct previous to her becoming Mrs. Hammond. She concludes with the statement that the nurse who has always secretly cared for her child has just died and that the child must be provided with a home. Seaton goes to Hammond and relates a story which in substance makes Seaton the child's parents, and induces Hammond to adopt the child; thus Mrs. Hammond receives into her own home the child of her illicit adventure. Later Mrs. Hammond writes to Seaton, telling that the child safely arrived in her home, and further makes clear the unfortunate condition under which the baby was born. By mistake Seaton gives the note to Hammond; upon reading it, Hammond concludes that Seaton played a trick on him and induced him to adopt the issue of an affair between Mrs. Hammond and Seaton. That very night, while attending a reception, Hammond discovers Seaton and Mrs. Hammond in confidential conversation. Hammond shoots, but the bullet strikes Mrs. Hammond, who has thrown herself in front of Seaton to protect him. Coincident with these details, Seaton undertakes to present Ernest Courtney's love affair to Vera Lane, the widow, in convincing fashion. While progressing with this purpose. Mrs. Seaton becomes suspicious of her husband and is doubly mystified when she sees him carrying the child to Mrs. Hammond's home. Since she witnessed Mrs. Hammond's shooting and is a friend of all the concerned parties, the widow attempts to straighten the various entanglements, and succeeds so well that the Seatons reconcile, as do the Hammonds, after Mrs. Hammond has told her husband of her past.