The Mask

Wall Street promoter Kenneth Traynor sails for South Africa to bring home two diamonds worth more than a million dollars for the mining company he directs, leaving his devoted wife Helen in New York. On the eve of his departure an old nurse reveals a secret he never suspected: he was born a twin, and his brother vanished in childhood, known only by a scar on one finger. That revelation sets up a story of deception. Signor Keralio, a fencing master with designs on Helen, conspires with Kenneth’s disloyal valet, and the title’s mask becomes a scheme to pass a false Kenneth off as the true one. First published in 1913 and later filmed, it is brisk period melodrama built on hidden identity, marital loyalty, and the lure of sudden wealth.