The Marble Heart (1916)

• 76%
• 1916
• Drama
• Kenean Buel
• Violet Horner
• Louise Rial
• Walter Miller

Therese Roger, daughter of a West Indian planter, whose parents are murdered while she is a baby, becomes the adopted daughter of her aunt, Madame Roger, keeper of a haberdashery shop in one of the smaller villages in southern France. She grows up with Camille, Madame Roger's son, a sickly, sexless creature, whom she ultimately marries in deference to her aunt's wishes. The monotony of Therese's married life tells on her. The uninteresting Camille each day drones out his existence in an office. At night he returns ever at the same hour, ever in the same enfeebled health and depressed spirits. Two neighbors, Dr. Gribet and Michaud, the latter prefect of police, drop into the Roger household for their weekly game of dominoes with Madame Roger. Suzanna, daughter of Dr. Grivet and Oliver, son of Michaud, who are in love, call frequently on the aged Madame Roger to pay their respects. Therese, full of youth and life, tires of her environment and its unchanging cycle of events. Camille collapses one day at the office and is brought home by his friend, Laurant. The latter, who is the opposite of Camille, meets Therese. They are attracted to each other and when Laurant becomes a frequent visitor at the Roger home a liaison develops between him and Therese. In Camille they see the only obstacle to their happiness. The two evil lovers decide to kill the husband. Soon an opportunity presents itself and they drown Camille. They manage to escape suspicion from the murdered man's mother and in course of time marry each other with the old woman's consent. But they have not attained the happiness which they thought would be theirs with Camille out of the way, for their crime haunts them. It shows in their faces. It stalks through their home. It leads them into quarreling with each other. During one of their stormy scenes they are overheard by Madame Roger, who becomes stricken with paralysis and the total loss of speech upon learning how her son died. The helpless old mother gloats over the torture which Therese and Laurant suffer from their consciences. In time, when guests are present, she tries to write her accusation of them upon the tablecloth with the edge of a domino, but her fingers cannot complete the sentence. She sees distrust continue to grow between the unhappy pair. Therese and Laurant plan to kill each other, but both are too-great cowards to add a new crime to their records, and they drink poison together, paying at last with their own lives for their earlier crime.