When bachelor friends David Clark, Dick Porter and Jerry Mathers agree to adopt Belgian war orphans, David unexpectedly finds himself the guardian of a little girl, Rene Lescere. After David is pursued by Mrs. Hardwick, a divorcee, Rene is determined to find him a more suitable wife and introduces him to Emmeline Warren. David and Emmeline are engaged, but the engagement is broken after Emmeline meets Jerry, her old beau, and their romance is rekindled. David, sad but resigned, sends Rene to boarding school and retires to his hunting lodge with Dick Porter. Later, Emmeline and Jerry, now married, visit the lodge and suggest that Rene accompany them on a trip abroad. At the moment of parting between Rene and her guardian, both realize that they love each other and Rene becomes David's wife.—Pamela Short
Three bachelor friends, David Clark, Dick Porter and Jerry Mathers, decide to each adopt a Belgian orphan. They are prompted to act by an advertisement soliciting homes for a shipload of orphans soon to arrive from the war zone. Going to the headquarters of the "committee of distribution," the three men selected from a list of names the children they promised to adopt and rear as their own personal charge. Their unfamiliarity with the Belgian system of naming children gave one of them a surprise. Two of the bachelors each claimed a boy when they appeared at the emigrant station, but a girl answered to the third name that was called out by the guard. David Clark had chosen Rene Lescere. In consultation with his two pals, David was on the point of returning his charge for a boy, when the woebegone expression Rene assumed at the prospect of leaving him touched Clark's heart, and he decided to keep her. In course of time David became a commuter, and Rene the head of his suburban household. Mrs. Billy Hardwick, divorced wife of one of David's acquaintances, has set her heart upon winning Clark as her second husband. Rene's keen intuition makes the little Belgian penetrate Mrs. Hardwick's scheme, and to protect her foster-parent the little girl goes forth to find a wife whom she deems suitable to become Mrs. Clark. Upon the street Rene meets Emmeline Warren, and entices her into Clark's house. She introduces Miss Warren to her foster-father. The unconventional and unexpected acquaintance thus formed ripens into what Rene had designed, a proposal of marriage and Miss Warren's acceptance. It so happened that Miss Warren and Jerry Mathers, one of the original three old cronies, had previously been in love. When they meet again at Clark's home the old flame is rekindled and when David unexpectedly comes upon them in loving embrace. Clark realizes the circumstances and insists that Mathers and Miss Warren shall marry. Heartbroken but resigned, to his fate, Clark closes his house, sends Rene to boarding school and repairs to his shooting lodge in the mountains, taking with him the third member of the original trio of chums, Dick Porter. Here the two men let the years glide by. Comes the time that Mr. and Mrs. Mathers are to take a trip abroad. Rene and Mrs. Mathers have maintained a close companionship, and Rene has been invited to accompany the Mathers to Europe. By arrangement Mr. and Mrs. Mathers visit Clark and Porter in the woods, Rene coming along to say farewell to her foster-father before leaving for across the water. The visit ended, Mr. and Mrs. Mathers start for the station; Rene stays behind for a last good-bye, and David finds that should Rene leave for Europe his heart would go with her. So he asks Rene to stay and become, instead of his little orphan, his wife.
