Under the Daisies (1913)

• 73%
• 1913
• Drama
• Van Dyke Brooke
• Norma Talmadge
• Van Dyke Brooke
• Leo Delaney

After severely criticizing the first play by Robert Burton, the critic of the Evening Times, John Mears, goes away into the country to get back his failing health. He has just heard from a lawyer that his uncle has left him a large legacy on condition that he does not marry before he is thirty-five years of age. Mears spends much of his time riding horseback, and one day sees a pretty girl, the daughter of a neighboring farmer, picking daisies in the fields. He introduces himself to her and commences a flirtation, after a time winning the trusting girl's love. Before he leaves for the city he gets the girl, Viola Martin, to promise to follow him to the city and meet him there, promising that he will marry her. The marriage is never celebrated; Mears puts off the wedding again and again until at last, after five years have passed, Viola realizes that he no longer loves her. Her heart broken by his neglect, she leaves him and starts back for her country home. Viola never reaches her home, but drops of exhaustion in the very field of daisies where she had first met Mears. Realizing that she can go no further she writes a farewell note to Mears, recounting the history of their meeting in the form of a beautiful poem. The farewell is never finished, for, overcome by her grief, she sinks lifeless among the pretty daisies that she had loved so well. A sheet of paper on which she has written is blown away by the wind and gets into the hands of Robert Burton, who is staying in that part of the country seeking inspiration for a new play. Burton discovers the body of the girl in the field and finds the rest of her manuscript, never suspecting, however, that the villain who had wronged her was John Mears. Upon the verses written by the dying Viola, Burton bases his new play, which turns out to be a tremendous success. When it is seen by Mears, he recognizes the story to be that of the much wronged Viola. Overcome by remorse he returns to his home and makes away with his worthless life, leaving another to write the eulogy of Burton's triumph.