Enchantment (1916)

In the forest a wood nymph sits playing with a pipe of reeds. From their cavern home come a faun and his mate. He leaves her. As the faun nears the place where the wood nymph sits she succeeds in attracting him by her music. He soon forgets the mate he left behind in the cavern. The faun's mate begins a search. She hears the pipes of the nymph and feels the first thrill of impending danger. She follows the music to its source and there finds the faun. Distressed at the faun's attraction for the nymph his mate now gives way to anger. She seizes the pipes from the nymph's hands and hurls them into the stream. As she does so, the nymph's spell over the faun is broken. The faun realizes the fool he has been and returns to his mate while the nymph disappears into the woods. The scene dissolves out. In an artist's studio Jack Carew gives a supper in honor of his success. Billy Norbert rises to a toast, may he obtain even greater success in his future work. To this toast they all agree and the suggestion is made that he prepare another example of his art for exhibition at the fall salon. His wife, Helen, keeps in the background and listens to the unstinted praise of Jack's friends. Only when Billy Norbert suggests the subject of his masterpiece, The Lorelei, does she experience a shudder of fear at some impending danger. Asked the reason for her silence, she can give neither answer or explanation. Eventually the party breaks up. Billy Norbert sees the condition into which Carew is falling. Time after time he tries to start work but the lack of a suitable model prevents him from getting into the spirit of his subject. When things have reached the state where Carew has absolutely stopped all attempts to paint, he, Helen and Norbert visit the cafés and resorts of the artist quarter. In one of these Carew at last discovers his ideal. She is Celeste. Carew works ceaselessly, but after the first few days of his preliminary work he becomes secretive, hiding his canvas from all eyes and even locking the studio for hours at a time. Between him and Helen comes an estrangement of which Norbert is not slow to take advantage. He listens to her expression of fear that Carew is falling under the influence of Celeste and while he defends him in a way, yet he leaves the doubt alive in Helen's mind. Eventually, the picture is completed. On the canvas is the exact reproduction of the nymph as in the prologue. The evening of its completion a celebration is planned; Carew and Celeste plan a little dinner party for themselves. Norbert has uncovered and frankly suggests to Helen that she leave Carew. She realizes that Carew no longer has a claim upon her and at last she succumbs to Norbert's pleas and agrees to go with him. Carew and Celeste leave for the café in which they are to have dinner. Helen believes it only fair to Carew to acquaint him with the fact that she intends to leave him for Norbert and to offer him an opportunity to explain the past. Accordingly she goes to the studio to see him. Carew proposes a toast to the newly-completed painting as Helen, in the studio, discovers him gone and the finished painting. Rage seizes her. She picks up a knife from Carew's pallet, cuts the canvas from its frame and tosses it into the fire. Carew sits with his glass poised in his hand. Something seems to arrest his arm. The glass falls from his hand and upon the floor; Celeste looks at him in surprise. The spell is broken; Carew rises slowly from his chair and leaves the place. In the studio Helen sits in front of the ashes and weeps. When she looks up Carew stands before her. Without a word she indicates the fire. Carew looks and sees what has happened but he does not blame her. He sits down beside her on the arm of the chair and places, his arms about her. Just outside the studio door Norbert enters in search of Helen. One glance through the door into the studio and he realizes that by some means a reconciliation has been effected. He slips away without being seen. Carew silences Helen as she begs his forgiveness for her hasty action. He appreciates that the destruction of his work has meant, also, the destruction of his infatuation for Celeste.