The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-03-06

fe her most literary production and
 1t is the one by which the measure of : the author Is generally taken by the
 literary world. though to the gen sral public it's fame is swallowed up in shat of Romola, Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss and Middlemarch. Per haps Bayard Taylor was not far from right when he said of Deronda that in 1t George Eliot reached her clearest height of intellectual achievement and also the barriers of art which she was not able to scale. George Eliot taught herself Hebrew at the beginning of her literary career and kept adding to her Knowledge of Hebrew literature and Jewish affairs until she finally felt compelled to wrote a novel which should deal somewhat with the Zionist movement in which she was greatly interested from a sociological and phil osophical point of view.
 h HE magnificent creature, Gwen
 doen Harleth, was riskng roy
 4 ally and winning superbly at the crowded roulette table of the German "spa" when her attention was com pelled from the fascination of the whirling ball upon the spinning wheel by the stronger fascination of the glance of Daniel Deronda, who stood watching her with glance at once interesting and disappearing. Under his steady gaze Gwendolen became nervous and began to lose. She looked toward him again and again, in spite of her determination not to do so. There he stood, still gazing at her-he himself apparently attracted by a species of fascination. Gwendolen played reek- lessly now. in defiance of his look of disapproval. lost all her winning and left the tables with a naughty and | angry glance at the stranger which | seemed to challenge him of his right | to gaze upon her. He had brought her | bad luck she was annoyed. The dark strongly built, distinguished looking | man seemed to have eyes deep in which | was a mystic meaning, not usually | seen in those of the well-bred, well connected English traveller.
 There was a something Oriental and l foreign about him, though he was, as Gwendolen found out upon inquiry. supposed to be an Englishman and the "nephew' of Sir Hugo Mallinger. Of course, people laughed and winked  had been young once, and Daniel De- ronda had been brought to the Abbey. Sir Hugo's principal seat, after the marriage of the baronet to the present Lady Ba1linger and treated in all ways as son; had been sent to Cambridge and was, apparently, supplied with sufficeint income for any young man not of extrayagant habits or costly vices. Deronda himself believed that he was Sir Hugo's son, and the thought was a ranking wound in his heart of which he never spoke, even to Sir Hugo. One thing puzzled him in spite of his belief concerning his paternity. Sir Hugo. when the lad became of age, had taken him aside and informed him that he had sufficient income, which was de- rived not from him. the baronet. but from property which had been left for the boy by another-who he would not say.
 Once, wandering into synagogue in German city, Daniel had come across an aged Jew, who had, after regarding him intently, asked his name. Then this patri- arch had said that it was as he suspect
  and that he was Jew. These things Daniel thought of much, but spoke of not ct all
 Gwendolen, returning to her hotel, thought with alternate vexation and satis- faction at the manner in which Deronda had seemed by his looks to disapprove of her high and reckless play. Sir Hugo Mallinger had place near her own home of Offendene. but had never occupied it since she had lived in that rural region with her widowed mother and her two half sisters She now drew for herself a fancy of Sir Hugo coming to his neglected estate, Deronda with him, of course, and of what might happen should they be neighbors But a shock surprising and terrible awaited Gwendolen Harieth in the shape of letter from her mother inform ing her that the smily were ruined-abso- lutely ruined Unfortunate speculations by the man to whom their modest fortune had been intrusted had swept away all that they possessed Ofendene must be xiven up-that beautiful old place which the widow had hired from her neighbor, Lord Brackenshaw-they must go to live in a cottage in the village, cottage se- lected by Gwendolen's uncle, the Rev. MT. Gascoigne rector in the nearest village to Onendene. The girls would have to find some employment-the widow suggested that Gwendolen become a governess-and must depend mostly for a living upon what the rector and his wife could spare them out of the means already strained by a large family. w .ss..+.
 Gwendolen rebe1led. Why had that MT. | Deronda come to give her bad luck at | the gaming tables? But for him she would | have been a big winner and could have | carried her winning back to relieve the | present necessities of Offendene. She | would try again. Early in the morning | she went for a walk and stopped at a | pa Wnshop to pledge a necklace of some | value. AS she came out of the pawnshop | she looked with some trepidation at the | windows of hotel opposite, for she knew | that in that house Daniel Deronda was | stopping. Had he seen her? Later in the | day came messenger with a package. | 1t contained her necklace and note say | ing. One who has found Miss Harleths | necklace returns it to her and begs that | she will be more careful of it in the fu- | fure." Gwendolen was filled with anger. | No name was signed, but she knew from whom the note came How did this man Anre to enter her imperious life where, | 13srefcfore. she had reigned mistress, in @&.oh q manner--to place her in such a |