Page:Thea von Harbou Metropolis eng 1927.pdf/111

 METROPOLIS ~m you awaken me," asked the man-and his voice quavered with weariness-"as soon as the sun comes?" "Yes," said the young girl. "Keep quiet... :' He sighed deeply. Then he lay still. It grew darker and darker. In the far distance a voice was to be heard, calling a name, long drawn out, again and again. The stars stood glorious above the world. The distant voice was silent. The young girl looked down upon the man whose head lay in her lap. In her eyes was the never sleeping watchfulness which one sees in the eyes of animals and of mothers.

CHAPTER X Josaphat tried, during the days which followed, to break through the barrier which WilS drawn around Freder, there was always a strange person there. and always a different one, who said, with expressionless mien: "Mr. Freder cannot receive anybody. Mr. Freder is ill.'" But Freder was not ill-at least not as illness generally manifests itself among mankind. From morning until evening, from evening until morning. Josnphat watched the house, the crown of the tower of which was Freder's Hat. He never saw Freder leave the house. But for hours at a time he saw, during the night. behind the white-veiled windows, which ran the breadth of the wall, a shadow wandering up and down-and saw at the hour of twilight, when the reoves of Metropolis still shone, bathed in the sun, and the darkness of the ravines of its streets was Hooded out by streams of cold light, the same shadow, a motionless form. standing on the narrOw balcony which rAn around this. almost the highest house in Metropolis. Yet what was expressed by the shadow's wandering up and down. by the motionless standing still of the shadow form. WHENEVER

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