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[in a low voice].
- Is it his way to light a lantern
- for life's night-pilgrimage through fear?
PEER
- Ah, come! When once the thing's cleared up,
- you'd seem a messenger of light?
THE PASSENGER
- Friend,-have you once in each half-year
- felt all the earnestness of dread?
PEER
- Why, one's afraid when danger threatens;-
- but all your words have double meanings.
THE PASSENGER
- Ay, have you gained but once in life
- the victory that is given in dread?
PEER [looks at him].
- Came you to ope for me a door,
- 'twas stupid not to come before.
- What sort of sense is there in choosing
- your time when seas gape to devour one?
THE PASSENGER
- Were, then, the victory more likely
- beside your hearth-stone, snug and quiet?
PEER
- Perhaps not; but your talk befooled me.
- How could you fancy it awakening?
THE PASSENG
