Plot Summary

Out of a mere thread of a plot and a few characters Mr. Howells weaves a very charming little comedy. His characters consist of Miss Constance Wyatt, her father and mother, a Mr. Bartlett, a painter and his friend Rev. Arthur Cummings.

The scene opens in the parlor of the Ponkwasset Hotel, the time being in the fall, and the house almost deserted by boarders. Mr. Bartlett and his friend are in the midst of a discussion of Mr. Bartlett's affairs, when Gen. Wyatt and his daughter enter the room, having but recently come from Paris.

Constance, at the sight of Bartlett, faints and Gen. Wyatt behaves like a crazy man. Bartlett's anger is aroused, and he is about leaving the house, where he had just determined to spend the fall, when an explanation is offered him of the extraordinary scene he had witnessed.

It seems he possesses a remarkable resemblance to a former lover of Constance, whom she imagines has jilted her, and for whom she is dying. The scenes which follow, in which Constance and Bartlett learn to love each other and the full baseness of the first lover is made known, are full of wit, sentiment, and fire.