Page:Thea von Harbou Metropolis eng 1927.pdf/184

 METROPOLIS

CHAPTER XIX taken the children into the house and Freder's eyes sought Maria, who was kneeling -in the street, among the last remaining children, consoling them. and bestowing her loving sm~le upon weeping and bewildered eyes. Fl"eder ran across to them and carried Maria into the house. «Don't forget," he said, letting her down upon a couch before the blazing fire in the entrance hall, and holding captive in his longing arms her half-lying, half-sitting, gently resisting form, "that Death and madness and something very like desb"uetien of the world have passed very cloie by usand that, after all that has happened, I do not even know the colour of your eyes-and that you have not yet kissed me once by your own free will...." «Dearest," said MflIia, leaning towards him, so that her pure eyes, bath~d .in painless tears, ~ere quite near to him, while, at the same time, a great, concentrated gravity kept her lips away from his, "are you sW'e that Death and madness have already passed by?" "By us, beloved-yesl" "Aod all the others-?" "Are you sending me away, Mariar' he asked, lovingly. She did not answer, at least not in words. But, with a gestme which was at once frank and touching, she put her arms about his neck and kissed him on the mouth. «Go along," she said, stroking his bewildered face with her virginal, motherly hands. "Go to your father. That is the most hallowed way.... I shall go to the children as soon as my clothes are a little dryer. For I'm afraid," she added with a smile whiCh made Freder blush to his eyes, «numerous as the women are who live in the 'House of the Sons: and willing and eager as they may be, hot one of them has a dress she could lend me.... I"

THEY HAD

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