The child is the daughter of two young people who are married unhappily, the father an officer in an English regiment, the “Scarlet Lancers,” in which a young man bearing the euphonious nickname of “Bootles” is a popular member. The young mother of the child, desiring to keep her vow regarding the secrecy of her marriage, but unable to support her baby, decides to leave it in the father’s rooms and force him to provide for it. By mistake she enters the wrong door and leaves the child in the room of “Bootles,” much to that young gentleman’s surprise when he finally appears upon the scene some time after and finds the baby snugly tucked away in his favorite armchair. “Bootles” is naturally somewhat awed at the new honor thrust upon him and, not knowing just how he should act under the circumstances, summons his boon companion of the regiment to advise him. The father of the child is among the group that gathers about the bedside where the little girl sits enthroned, but he decides to keep silence and leave “Bootles” to care for the child or dispose of it as he chooses. Our hero, after a further conference with the Colonel of the barracks and the latter’s good wife, decides upon the former course and assumes the guardianship of the little foundling, who rewards him by providing a most companionable and lovable little lady. Two years later, at a house party where “Bootles” is spending some time, there comes a strange young woman as the secretary or companion of one of the titled guests, and though she keeps her own counsel we realize at once that she is the mother of the little girl. And then fate takes a hand and makes our friend “Bootles” fall desperately in love with the unassuming little secretary. It nearly breaks his heart when she acknowledges her love for him but tells him that she may not marry him. Then the scene shifts to a gentleman’s race, in which the father of the child meets with a fatal accident. Before he dies he confesses his relationship to the little girl, but not to her mother; and so, when “Bootles” receives a letter in a strange hand from a woman who tells him she is the child’s mother and asks for her return, he prepares to give up the little one about whom his heart strings are closely woven, and takes her to the address given in the letter. Of course he meets with a surprise there, but it is one of those surprises which not only makes him happy but makes the spectator feel quite proud of having known it all along.