Society for Sale (1918)

Phyllis Clyne, a manikin in a modiste's shop in London, learns that a gentleman known as the Honorable Billy has gone broke. Having saved up some money and being anxious to get into society, Phyllis goes to the Hon. William and offers him quite a neat sum if he will pretend that she is engaged to him. Billy consents, with the result that he falls in love with her. Phyllis, in spite of Billy's warning, persists in running about with Lord Sheldon, an elderly nobleman with a spicy reputation. Just as Billy has made up his mind that he cannot live without Phyllis, he is led to suppose that she has eloped with Sheldon. The nobleman is killed in an auto accident, and Billy then learns the real reason for the girl's buying her way into society. Lord Sheldon was her father. Circumstances connected with her mother's lowly birth had kept father and daughter apart. A desire to know the truth about her father's reputation prompted Phyllis to act as she did. Satisfied that papa had acquired the name without the game, Phyllis is glad to admit to Billy that his love is returned with any amount of fervor.