The Root of Evil
The daughter of a wealthy man has clandestinely married his secretary. Their secret is discovered by the man's confidential adviser, an unscrupulous, designing villain, who hoped to marry her himself, simply to obtain the father's wealth. Of course, he makes known his discovery, and is effusive in his sympathy for such a misalliance, delicately urging the father on to extreme measures, which resulted in his disowning his daughter and making a new will in favor of the adviser. In their new home, the young husband contracts an incurable disease, and five years after her departure from her father's home, we find her the widowed mother of a small child. Meanwhile, the schemer has more strongly ingratiated himself in the esteem of the father. The daughter in desperation makes a vain appeal to her father, but is repulsed. The shock, however, is too much for the old man, and he is stricken dangerously ill. His trusted servant feels that now is the time to effect a reconciliation and goes after the daughter. The adviser, fearing for his own chances, poisons the wine the doctor leaves as a tonic for the sick man, and his plan would have succeeded had not the little granddaughter seen the act, and by imitating him, poisoned the villain's own drink, thereby producing the result of his design.
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