Litchfield enquirer., 1871-04-20
A DAUGHTER OF MUSIC.
BY JUSTIN MCCARTHY.

III the early part OL tue SumHeI oA lOoo' in the interval between the eventful day
 when the troops of King William of Pfus- sia crossed the frontier of Saxony and the
 far more eventful day of Sadowa, a traveller
 from the United States sat at the window
 of house overlooking German river, and
 watched the march of 9 body of soldiers
 across a bridge. This was Prussian town
 from which Prussian soldiers were marching
 south to meet the Austrians, with, as nine
 out of every ten Europeans outside Prus
 firmly believed, the certainty of defeat be
 rived only the evening before, and finding
 all the hotels crowded to overfowing, and
 every speiSesadl converted into barrack
 mess-room, was glad to be able to take re-
 fuge in a cleanly, pleasant chamber in the
 house of decent and humble family who
 turned the eve of war to golden advantage
 by letting lodgings ..
 The evening was bright, soft, and beau. tiful, and the American much enjoyed his quiet hour at the window with his cigar and
 the pleasant look tout across the river. He
 was tired of rambling through the city
 amidst the noisy crowds of soldiers and
 idlers, and tue perpetual drumming and fl. fing, clatteripg and rattling, galloping and
 hustling. which are among the preludes of glorious war. He could not help admiring the steady march of the soldiers across the bridge, their firm, com pact figures, the in- telligence which seemed to speak in thei, very movements; and he began to think, even as he looked on. that perhaps. after all, the public opinion of Europe might not prove to be oracular-perhaps the Aus trians might not find it so very easy to march right over these Prussians into the heart of Berlin. 'How,' he said to himself, eff it should prove to be the case of the Yankee traders and the Southern chivalrv over again?"
 Meanwhile little incident of the march diverted his attention from the political possibilities. As the soldiers were passing along girl came out of the door of the house where our traveller lodged, and stood just beneath his window. He knew her as the daughter of the family; indeed she had brought him his coffee that morning, and he had met her more than once on the staircase. Avery pretty, graceful girl she was. She was tail and slender; she had shining dark hair, dark eyebrows, and sparkling eyes; and she had those clearly cut features, with something of Grecian outline, which are certainly not too comon in Germany. As she stood now in the sinking sunlight, bareheaded, shading her eyes with her hand. and watching eagerly the passing of the troops, she might have made the central figure of striking pie ture. ''So stands woman always in the hour of war;" thought our philosophical ''eager, anxious. watching in si- lent suppressed sadness the march of tho ranks which bear her lover or her husband away from her side"
 Even as he spoke a sudden change came over the attitude of the girl, and she sprang a pace or two forward Then the blue- coated soldier left the ranks, ran toward her, exchanged an eager word or two, kissed her twice, then ran after his com rades and regained his place. The form of the girl dropped and swayed. She still where the soldier had left her, and gazed after the long blue line that was fast disappearing on the other side of the bridge. Then, when it had wholly faded, she turned listlessly and slowly entered the house again. ..
 Our traveller had drawn back into the window, lest he should be seen by the girl as she entered. It would have seemed like wlful sacrilege to have watched the little incident of love and romance which he assumed that he had just been But he might have spared himself any trouble; the girl did not look up.
 He still sat smoking and thinking, and the evening darkened, and the trees on the other side of the river began to look ghost- ly against the purpling sky. Presently he became conscious of beautiful, tender influence blending with that of the sunset and the evening air in softening appeal to his soul and sense. It was the music of @ piano, played, it seemed to him, with quite remarkable delicacy of touch. The performer was playing some of Mendels- shon's sweetest, saddest notes; and the American, man of taste and feeling, thought the sound harmonized so exquis- itsly with the hour, the scene, the associa- tions, that they might have fitly formed the very expression in music of the part ing episode on which he had just looked down.
 'But it surely" he said to himself, s'can not be that girl who brought my coffee who is playing with such touch--with such expression9 If it is she, then she has the soul of an artist"
 Franklin Lathrop was young American of fortune, leisure, and culture. He might O0 SssAUs pcIu0Ps3 eO U0AVuS tV Ouo VI t0o sublime, hardly appreciated first families, whose claims, however earnestly asserted, it is not always quite easy to define. Ger tainly he knew the best people everywhere those who are best worth knowing, not those who are best in the fashionable sense. He had been spending some time in Flu rope, travelling for self.culture, not for curiosity or idleness, or that he might be able to talk of his travels afterward; and he had gone off the beaten track every.
 where, and tried to know something of the peoples and the tongues of the countries in which he travelled. Now he was on his way homeward from Russia, and only de- layed little to catch glimpse of the way in which war goes on in Europe. He dres. sed very plainly. flashed no rhetoric dia- mond from ring or shirt bosom, made no display of wealth anywhere. and was. in deed, in every respect, quiet. sclf-con. tained, modest American gentleman. No. body could be less like the American who makes it his grand ambition to set Paris smiling, London staring, and Rome gesti- culating with two hooking fingers over his prodigality of expense and of display.
 Next morning the pretty girl waited on Lathrop again. He looked with new in.
 teres and admiration into her fine, clear face, with it's masses of dark hair So slen der, so shapely, SO graceful 8 figure might
 have attracted attention anywhere Hel dress we'll set of her form and symmetry: