Manager (alone):

Dead—Strader!—Can this really be the truth?

The spirit-sleep of which I heard so much

Now toucheth me.—The fate which here doth guide

The threads of life wears now a serious face.

O little soul of mine, what mighty hand

Hath now laid hold upon thy thread of fate,

And given it a part within this knot.

‘But that which must will surely come to pass!’

Why is it that these words have never left