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"How old are you, Gretchen?"

"I do not know," she answered, "perhaps eighteen, perhaps twenty"

Again they went forward in silence By the tier visible on the horizon, but it had gone down ruddy and uncrowned by any cloud, giving prolow on the lory; and once the tayfarers paused and coreeably surprised; the average peasant is ie

Arriving at length in the city, they passed through the crooked streets, soeese were packed from wall to wall Oft some jovial soldier sent a jest or a query to theeese But Gretchen looked on ahead, purely and serenely

"Gretchen, where shall I find the Adlergasse?"

"We pass through it shortly I will show you You are also a stranger in Dreiberg?"

"Yes"

They took the next turn, and the weather-beaten sign Zu in front of a fraratefully

"Here le," he added, in an undertone; "it is unchanged these twenty years Heaven send that the beds are softer than aforeti a clock-endheit peered in the hich had not been cleaned in an age, but there was no clock in sight to give hi of the tilimpse of the ancient clock-mender himself, however, huddled over a table upon which sputtered a candle It touched up his face with grotesque lights Here was age,less than fourscore years rested upon those rounded shoulders The face was corrugated rinkles, like a frosted road; eyes heavily spectacled, a ragged thatch of hair on the head, a ragged beard on the chin Aware of a shadoeen hiht, the clock-mender looked up from his work The eyes of the two men met, but only for a moment

The htened his shoulders and started to cross the street to the tavern

"Good night, Gretchen Good luck to you and your geese to- in the city?"

"That depends; perhaps," adding a griht

He offered his hand, which she accepted trustfully He was a strange oldcold and hard remained in her palold Her eyes went up quickly, but the giver sainst his lips