Muriel, Mary's eldest daughter, is shocked by her mother's actions and attempts to sacrifice herself to Rudlin to clear her mother's obligations, although she is engaged to marry a well-to-do Harvard undergraduate. A stern aunt appears and is hell bent on taking her brother's children away from their mother. The aunt manages to turn Bennett's children against their mother, with the exception of her son, Bill, who, fortuitously, inherits the fortune of a neighbouring spinster which allows Mary to be reunited with the rest of her children. Mary discovers noble qualities in Rudlin and agrees to become his future wife.