Caprices of Fortune
Directed by Étienne ArnaudWill Steadman, a hopeful but meagerly-endowed young man, is madly in love with his wealthy second cousin Bertha Steadman. He asks her mother for her hand and she reminds him that his present station forbids such a union. Thereupon he asks: "Auntie, if I make my fortune, may I hope to marry Bertha?" Auntie makes a very noncommittal reply; but with that, Will starts out to seek his fortune. Clara, a maid at the Steadmans', has long been secretly in love with Will. She is nearby and hears Will asks for Bertha's hand. Her hope of months turns to havoc in her heart and desire is mastered by fear until she hears the aunt reply. Will is away now and Clara steals to the room which once was his, to fondle the things he had touched and gather little souvenirs he had left behind. Here she finds a bit of a torn-up portrait of Will and an old lottery ticket he had forgotten. Will goes first to Homestead in Pennsylvania, hoping to find something there, where millionaires have been made in a day; instead he meets an affable stranger who garners his every penny. He leaves the land of steel and journeys south among the Knights of the Road. Then he heads west, where after one of his ejections from the freight he was riding, he meets with a crazy old prospector, who interests him with his talk of gold that is going to rot. But the truth is soon learned and visions of the girl he can't forget push him on into Mexico. He turns cowboy and his adventures are many, till one day a letter is handed him from home. It is from Clara, telling him a lottery ticket which she had found in his room has won the capital prize. To Will this means he has now the fortune by which he can sue again for the hand of Bertha. But in his absence she has married. He arrives back home eager to see his aunt and tell of his fortune. Then he is told that she now belongs to another. Then he comes to Clara to receive his lottery fortune and she unable to withhold her feelings, breaks down in tears. So Dan Cupid lifts the veil which had hung before his eyes, and shames him. Dame Fortune presents him with what she had already left at his door. One man takes one little true-hearted girl in his arms, nothing is said, but everything is realized. And the greatest little god and the funniest old dame go marching off to continue their eternal labors.
