The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-11-14

embraced and had so confdentially pro-
 claimed as the natural one, he felt was
 impossible for him. The great world of
 real men and women, of shopkeepers and
 sailors; of mill shands and writers for the
 reviews; of effort, of combat, of conquest,
 called to him night and day and would not
 be denied. So one day he put on his
 "city clothes." bade goodby to the com
 munity and departed. The community
 seemed to have been expecting his action
 and took his departure calmly.
 He had been but few days in Boston
 and was enjoying to the full his return to
 everyday life when one afternoon looking
 out of the back window of his hotel, he
 saw, standing In the window of fashion
 able boarding house which had it's back to
 the back of the hotel, the figure of Zen
 obia At another window he saw Priscilla sitting engaged upon some fancy work His interest was intensely aroused. Zen
 obia, looking up. saw his inquisitive face peerlng down at her, hooded to him-and pulled down the curtains.
 That evening he decided to call upon her-why should he not7 He found zeno- bia and Priscilla dressed to go out. The girl received him timidly-the naughty woman with an irritation she was at no pains to conceal While they talked Wes- tervet entered the room, greeted the poet with a half-veiled sarcasm and said: Come, Priscilla, are you ready?' Stay"
 cried Coverdale, T must first know if
 Priscilla goes with you of her own free
 will" For answer the girl. deathly pale, placed one hand on Westervelts arm and the two, followed by Zenobia, descended to waiting carriage.
 In his eagerness to solve the mystery which seemed to surround Priscilla and to link her life with the lives of Zenobia and Westervelt, Coverdale now sought out old Noodle. It was hard at first to get the old man to talk. but few glasses of generous wine and the evident sincerity of Coverdale's interest opened his lips and he told the story of his wasted life. He had once been man of great wealth in another part of the country. His wife had l died, leaving him with one child, she who was now called Zenobia. He had dissi- l pated his wealth and in his efforts to con- tinue in his extravagant way of living had been guilty of using trust funds in his possession. His wealthy and powerful rel atives had made good his peculatons and saved him from their legal penalties. His brother had taken Zenobia to bring up. He himself rmd assumed the name of Noodle and had drifted down with the I stream until he was as Coverdale saw | him.
 | His relatives believed him dead. In his dire poverty he had married again. His l second wife had soon died and left him with daughter, Priscilla. Then Zenobia' 8 | adopted father died and, as it was sup ! posed that his embedding brother was | long since dead, Zenobia inherited her i uncle's great fortune. Old Noodle, crushed and broken, was content that
 his gorgeous daughter should possess the property undisturbed. But as Priscilla grew a desire came to him that she, too, | should have some Of the comforts and l luxuries which were enjoyed by her sis 1 ter.
 ] Priscilla, as she added to her years, | seemed to become gifted with weird pow ] CTS. She fancied she heard voices at times 1 which no one else heard and the people
 of the squalid tenement house, where 1 Noodle lived, declared that she talked
 with spirits and could fortel the future l Westervelt, who as husband or lover, l had been in some way mixed up with
 Zenobia's past had turned mesmerist, and hearing of the tenement house girl en- 1 dowed with strange powers, sought her out. In his hands she became the Yelled
 Lady, which had so puzzled tho Boston | scientists
 | Seeing that the unnatural excitement of l the Yelled Lady "seances'' was injuring | her health and hearing that Zenobia had ! joined the Blithedale colony, Noodle sent | Priscilla there. It was his hope that |. Zenobia would become so attached to
 Priscilla that she would care for and pro- vide for her. and that he would not be obliged to reveal himself to his elder i daughter.
 1 But Zenoba failing to bestow upon Pris- ella that affection which the girl craved :! and for which Noodle had hoped, he had
 soon after his visit to Blithedale, sum | moned Zenobia to come to him in his | squalid quarters Some hint in tho letter which summoned her excited Zenobias 3