The Road o' Strife

EPISODE 1: In the little village of Elmhurst is a lonely house with shuttered windows, the home of a suspicious recluse known as Professor Gershom, who is considered more than half mad. No one has ever guessed the secret of the old house, that within its walls a beautiful girl has grown from childhood to womanhood without ever speaking to a human being except her strange guardian. Alene is in heart a child, but she is deeply learned in all things that a really great scientist has been able to teach her. Gershom, however, is vaguely conscious that about her there is something incomplete and imperfect. Alene herself is unaware that the restlessness which prevents her finding interest in the life she has heretofore led is due to the stirring of the primal instinct to seek a mate. Something seems calling her out into the world, and unquestioning, she answers the call, stealing from the old house while Gershom sleeps. Fate wills that Robert Dane shall be the first man Alene shall meet. Though neither is aware, a flame of love is instantly kindled. Alene, with the simplicity of perfect purity, demands that Dane take her to live in his house, and is heartbroken when he conducts her instead to her own home. Dane is himself miserable, for he thinks this wonderful little person must be demented, and that it is for this reason that she has been hidden from the world. Sadly Alene enters the old house, to find a scene of horror. Stretched upon the floor, with the blood matting his hair, is Professor Gershom and upon the edge of a curtain is a human hand, the figure itself being concealed by the drapery. In the fascination of terror Alene draws near enough to the mysterious hand to observe that it wears a peculiar ring, and then flees from the place. Alene finds Dane and induces him to return with her to the house, they being accompanied by Dr. Duncan, a kindly old village practitioner and friend of Dane. They find the old house empty; the body of Gershom has disappeared, and there is no one behind the curtain. Dr. Duncan takes Alene to his home, though she declares that she would prefer to go with Dane, and she is tenderly cared for by the doctors old wife. Dr. Duncan and his wife also think the poor child demented, but hope time and kindness may cure the ill. As to her identity they have no clue and can only surmise her relationship to Gershom. Alone in his study Dane is dreaming of Alene. EPISODE 2: Caleb Jerome is a private banker of the old school, most highly este