GINGER-BREAD GALOP. 4 HANDS. Composed and arranged for the Piano-Forte, for Godey's Lady's Book. BY F. H. H. THOMSON. As published by J.STARR HOLLOWAY, 811 Spring Garden St., Philada. (SECONDO.) GODEY'S Lady's Book and Magazine. VOLUME XCIII.-NO. 557. PHILADELPHIA, NOVEMBER, 1876. THE GOLDEN CLUE. BY LOUISE BARTON. "AND thou art going away, Gretchen, really going away to-morrow? Who knows what change may come before we meet again?" for his pencil, of which he was in searchfound, namely, in the mountain summer pastures, a herd-maiden for his bride. The storm thereby aroused among his proud kindred, hardly reached Von Hardenberg in his mountain home, where, undisturbed, he continued to live, love, and paint. And when he died, and his wife soon followed him, her good cousin's dwelling in this old Munich quarters took the only child. It was in the order of things that Max von Edelstern, the young artist from the Tyrol, who lodged here with her cousins, and who, noble in birth as Gretchfather, was as penniless, should woo Gretchen, and win her, too. She had glanced over her shoulder when Max spoke of her departure. "But I am not going very far," she said. "I shall be still in Munich, and you talk as if we should be very far apart." Gretchen had dropped her feather dust-brush on the sill, and leaned against the window frame, a half smile on her parted lips. The girl was gazing idly down into one of those quaint streets which mark old Munich. It was evening, and along the narrow way, so quiet through the day, came a subdued sound of voices, as gossip after neighboring gossip gath-en's ered for the wonted chat about the doors. The whole street, with its ivied windows, glared with tiny diamond shapes in frames of lead. Its stuccoed fronts and grotesque carving, its projecting nooks and gables, were like the background of a medieval picture. In the foreground were groups of women in bright kirtles and kerchiefed bodices, and fair hair braided under gold and silver Munich caps, while there passed a slow procession of pilgrims, chanting and waving crucifix and banner. But Gretchen hardly saw all this. The scene was the mere background of the picture her companion's words had lightly sketched, and which hope was filling in with gold and rosy colors; for Gretchen, little Cinderella that she was, had been found, after years of forgetfulness, by the fairy godmother in the shape of a great-aunt, who was to come to-morrow in her gilded pumpkin of a coach, and whisk off the maiden for her first glimpse of the world. The girl's father, as the proud old aunt would have said, had she deigned to speak of him at all, had been a degenerate Von Hardenberg. Sprung from an impoverished branch, he had depended on his pencil for subsistence, in pursuit of which he had wandered into the Tyrol, and there found more than the subject "And so we shall be, Gretchen. Your aunt would be very far from pleased by a visit from the unknown artist. No, no; we are parted for the six months for which she has taken you, on trial as it were. After that, Gretchen" "Well, Max, after that?" She moved slowly away from the window, and came and stood opposite him, where he was leaning on the high porcelain stove which filled well nigh one side of the room. She was bewitchingly pretty as she stood there in the Tyrolese peasant costume which to-morrow must be dropped, with her hands clasped lightly before her, and the little head slightly bent, as if beneath its masses of fair braids. No wonder every one gave her the diminutive Gretchen, instead of the stately Margarethe; such a childishly rounded figure was hers, such a childishly dimpled rosebud mouth, which, still a very bud, had lost no infantine curve of careless sweetness. And such laugh 413 |