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.