The Cost

Against her father's wishes, Pauline Gardner marries young philanderer John Dumon on his promise that he will reform. Dumont breaks his word, and one night when Pauline sees him with another woman, she decides to separate from him and returns home to her parents who live out West. Soon after, Dumont becomes the head of a wool trust that is attempting to gain control of the Western state in which Hampton Scarborough, Pauline's former suitor, is running for governor, but Dumont is unsuccessful. Time passes and Pauline learns that Dumont has been having an affair with her best friend, Leonora Fanshaw, whose husband engineers Dumont's ruin on Wall Street for revenge. Pauline bails Dumont out, but the strain kills him. After his death she returns to Scarborough and they marry.