His Younger Brother (1911)

• 72%
• 1911
• Drama
• Romance

A young clerk, employed by a wealthy broker, weakly yields to the temptations of city life, and embezzles some of the money entrusted to his care. He is found out, of course, and is about to fly when an officer arrives at his home and places him under arrest. In a last effort to hide his disgrace from his loving sister and mother he tells them that he is the victim of a plot, and is being railroaded to prison for the sins of his employer. The sister believes him, as sisters will, and forms a daring plan to save him. She decides to disguise herself as a boy, secure employment with the broker, and discover his secrets. Then she will free her darling brother. Part of her scheme is successful. She lands the job, and wins the broker's confidence. Against her will, she day by day finds it harder to keep on hating him. He is kind-hearted, charitable and considerate, not at all what she had expected him to be. The broker even goes so far as to decide to free the young embezzler. He pleads with the judge, urges him to give the young man a chance to retrieve his folly, and the clerk leaves prison. Full of gratitude, he accompanies his employer to his office, and there frankly admits all his wrongdoing. The new "clerk" listens with horror. She realizes that the broker was unjustly accused and that her brother had lied to her. Overpowered by emotion, her condition finally attracts the guilty man. He looks up to see the sister he loves gazing sorrowfully at him, and realizes the sacrifice she has made in a misguided effort to "clear" a name that deserved to be bad. The brother's cry of recognition gives the broker his first inkling of the truth. He realizes that the bright boy who has recently come into his employ, was no other than the sister of his former clerk. Too astonished for words, the broker allows the brother and sister to leave the office without further explanation. When they have gone, he sends after them a note informing the boy that he is to have a fresh start as the broker's agent in Brazil, and that if his "younger brother" will consent, she can fill his old position. For the broker realized that the supposed boy had found a place in the heart he never though would be pierced by Cupid's arrow.