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

threw Deronda much with the Cohens. And the more he saw of the Cohens the more he questioned them adrotly, the more he was convinced that they were not the people he sought. Mordecai be-
 longed to a little club composed of Jews and some Christians. club of dreamers, all seeking for something in the realm of dreams, and all in their intense desire
 for the progress of the world, wandering off the beaten paths along which progress ever moves. To the Jew and the life of the Jew, to Jewish aspirations, Deronda felt himself strangely drawn.
 One day Mordecai told Deronda the story of his early life. He had, he said,
 been on his way to the East to see more clearly the vision which was upon him the vision of the re-establishment of Israel as a nation-when his life was broken. But you,' he said, "are sent
 to me I can see it. You shall take up the burden of my task where I was obliged to lay it down. My life will soon go out, but I shall breathe into you the spirit of the task to which had intended to consecrate my life. It was at Trieste
 when the news of my fathers desertion of my mother came to me. companion came to me and said, Ezra, I have been to the post There is your letter. !"
 "Ezra,' exclaimed Daniel. ''Yes, Ezra Mordecai Cohen is my name. My father left my mother and took away my little sister Mirah. It killed my mother and the sins of the fathers are visited upon their children. His crime poisoned my
 life-it is slowly stfling this breath.' It was with difficulty that Deronda
 could prevent himself from betraying the emotions which swept over him. Here at last was the lost brother. Further ques- tioning of Mordecai made it absolutely certain But Mirah must be prepared
 for the knowledge that her mother was dead and the knowledge that her brother still lived and was near her Daniel
 thought much that night. He felt that in
 this Jew Mordecai or Ezra, this consump- tive workman in threadbare clothes lodged by charity and delivering himself to hearers who took his thoughts without
 attaching more consequence to them
 than the Flemings do to the ethereal chimes ringing above their market place, was a man possessing the chief elements
 of greatness mind consciously, energet- ically moving with the large march of
 human destinies. He felt, also, that the care of the remnant of Mordecafs life devolved upon him and that the idealist
 had spoken truths when he had said that after his spirit had fled the task upon which its earthly existence had been bent was to .devolve upon Deronda.
 Deronda the next day obtained lodgings,
 unbeknown to them, for Mirah and Ezra
 in a healthy location Then he persuaded
 Ezra to move into them and prepared him
 .or the revelations regarding Mirah. To Mirah he also broke the news of the dis covery of her brother and of the death of her mother. When Deronda was to take
 Mrah to meet her brother she came downstairs dressed in the shabby gar ments she had worn when Daniel had rescued her from suicide by the banks of | the river. My brother is poor' she
 said and l want to go to him in this
 guise lest he should feel distant from seeing me we'll dressed.' When Deronda
 opened the door for her and Mirah 'en- tered Ezra's room he rose from his chair and the two faced each other for a mo-
 ment in silence. gazing steadfastly. Then
 Mirah broke the silence. Ezra, she said in the same tone she had told Dan-
 iel she remembered having heard her
 mother call to him. Ezra advanced and
 laid his hands upon her shoulders. That
 was my mothers voice. he said; you remember her calling me-
 Soon after this meeting of the long sep
 arated brother and sister and their es-
 tablshment in a home of their own, De- ronda received a letter from Gwendolen saving that she wished much to see him, and he went to her. II was in the Grand court house in Park lane that the inter view took place.
 ] Il wanted to tell you.v said Gwendolen