Crossing

THE STORY

Violette Montressor is a poor, proud French immigrant working in the household of  George Morrison, a wealthy Edinburgh businessman. Violette and George's son, Thomas, fall in love and marry in secret. George discovers the secret, has the marriage annulled, and sends Violette away. George and Thomas argue violently, and Thomas leaves Edinburgh, vowing to find Violette.

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A few months later, a sickly Violette returns to the Morrison mansion with her newborn son and demands their place in the family. George sees his son in the infant and takes them in. Thomas shows up soon after, but he is unaware that Violette has returned and that he has a son. He cannot bring himself to face his father, and he flees before knocking on the door. Distraught, Thomas sets sail for America, determined to make his fortune and use his wealth to find Violette. 

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In the next months, Violette and George grow close as daughter and father, and when she dies,  George raises the boy as his own son. When Thomas Jr. turns 18, he crosses to America to find his father, who has become a successful mill owner. In a final confrontation, father throws his son out of the mill, believing the story is a con game. Only when Thomas Jr. ends the argument shouting, "Well, that's it, then" -- the same words that George had used to end the argument with his son so many years before -- does Thomas realize the truth. Father and son are reunited.

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Thomas Morrison Jr. was the great-great grandfather of Michael Bailey, member of Maggie's Guitar and writer of the song Crossing, which appeared on the 2016 album of the same name. That song tells the Morrison tale.