The Ordeal
Sybil marries George Bruce, an alcoholic 20 years her senior, In order to provide for her crippled sister, Helen, and her brother, Geoffrey. Bruce becomes jealous of Sybil's attentions to young physician Robert Acton, and when Bruce suffers a heart attack and calls for digitalis, Sybil allows the vial to break and he dies. She inherits her husband's fortune, which she retains on the condition that she does not remarry, and has Helen cured by an operation. Although Sybil and Acton fall in love, he refuses to commit himself without a legal marriage. Meanwhile, Helen, who has drifted into a dissolute life, is abducted and is about to be forced into a marriage when she is rescued from a fire by Sybil and Acton. Minnie, a family nurse, confesses in her dying moments that she poisoned Bruce. Realizing that her money has yielded more grief than happiness, Sybil consents to give up the fortune and marry Acton.
