The Spreading Dawn
Released: October 21, 1917Runtime: 50 min
Georgina asks permission from her old aunt, Patricia Mercer Vanderpyl, to marry Capt. Nugent before his departure for France. Patricia refuses and, in reply to Georgina's questioning, gives her a diary from her own girlhood to read. The diary unfolds the story of Patricia's marriage to soldier Anthony Vanderpyl. Returning on furlough after the outbreak of the Civil War, Anthony suddenly leaves Patricia to visit Mrs. Le Roy, an old flame, and is killed by her jealous husband. Positive that Anthony had been unfaithful to her, Patricia refuses to open the letter that her husband sent her on the day of his death. Georgina now opens it and discovers that Anthony had gone to Mrs. Le Roy to end the affair that his brother Bentley was having with her. With this revelation, Patricia sanctions her niece's marriage, then dies, joining Anthony in "the spreading dawn".
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Top billed cast
Jane Cowl
as Patricia Mercer Vanderpyl
Orme Caldara
as Anthony Vanderpyl
Harry Spingler
as Bentley Vanderpyl
Florence Billings
as Mrs. Cornelia Le Roy
Henry Stephenson
as Mr. LeRoy
Alice Chapin
as Mrs. Mercer
Helen Blair
as Young Lizzie
Cecil Owen
as Colonel Lee
Mabel Ballin
as Georgina Vanderpyl
Edmund Lowe
as Captain Lewis Nugent
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