Page:Thea von Harbou Metropolis eng 1927.pdf/211

 METROPOLIS ·What do you want here?" asked Freder, Joh Fredersen's son. "Do you want to take her away from me? Have you made plans to part her and me? Is there some mighty undertaking in danger, to which she and I are to be sacrificed?" "To whom are you speaking, FrederP" his father asked. very gently. . FredeI' did not answer. His eyes opened inquiringly, for he had heard a voice never heard before. He was silent. "If you are speaking of Joh Fredersen." continued the very gentle voice, "then be informed that, this night, Joh Fredersen died a sevenfold death. . . ," Freder's eyes, burnt with suffering, were raised to the eyes which were above him. A piteously sobbing sound came from out his lips. . "Oh my God-Father-I Father ... you-I" Job Fredersen stooped down above him and above the girl who lay in Freder's lap. "She is dying, father.... Can't you see she is dying-?" Joh Fredersen shook his head. "No, nol" said his gentle voice. "No, Freder. There was an hour in my life in which I knelt, as you, holding in my arms the woman I loved. But she died, indeed. 1 have studied the face of the dyiug to the full. I kuow it perfectly and shall never again forget it. .. . The gi.rl is but sleeping. Do not awaken her by force." And, with a gesture of inexpressible tenderJll.ess, his hand slipped from Freder's shoulder to the hair of the sleeping girl. "Dearest childl" he said. "Dearest child... ," And from out of the depth of her dream the sweetness of a smile responded to him, before which Joh Fredersen bowed himself, as before a revelation, not of this world. Then he left his son and the girl and passed thrugh the cathedral, lIlade glorious and pl~asant by the gay-coloured ribbons of sunshine. Freder watched him go untih his gaze grew misty. And all at once, with a sudden, violent, groaning fervour, he raised the girl's mouth to his mouth and kissed her, as though he wished to die of it. For, from out the marvel of light, spun into ribbons, the knowledge had come upon

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