METROPOLIS saying: 'Thus with a mighty fall, shall Babylon the great city be cast down, and shall be found no more at alll" "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!
"The woman who is called Babylon, the Mother of the Abominations of the Earth, wanders as a blazing brand through Metropolis. No wall and no gate bids her halt. No tie is sacred. An oath turns to mockery before her. Her smile is the last seduction. Blasphemy is her dance. She is the Harne which says: 'God is very wrathl Woe unto the city in which she shall appear!' " FredeI' bent across to Jan. "Of whom is he speaking?" he asked, with strangely cold lips. "Is he speaking of a person? ... of a woman? .. ," He saw that the brow of his friend was covered with sweat. "He is speaking of her," said Jan, as though he were speaking with paralysed tongue. "Of whom?" "Of her . .. don't you know her?" "I don't know," said Freder, "whom you mean...." And his tongue, too, was heavy, and as though made of clay. Jan gave no answer. He had hunched up his shoulders as though he were bitterly cold. Bewildered and undecided, he listened to the intermediate rolling of the organ. "Let us go'" he said tonelessly, turning around. Freder followed' him. They left the cathedral. They walked along together in silence fat a long time. Jan seemed to have a destination of which Freder did not know. He did not ask. He waited. He was thinking of his dream and of the monk's words. At last Jan opened his mouth; but he did not look at Freder, he spoke into space: "You do not know who she is ... But nobody knows ..• She was suddenly there ... As a fire breaks ont ... No one can say who fanned the flame . . . But there it is, and now ev?rything is ablaz~ .. :' A woman ... ? "Yes. A woman. Perhaps a maid, too. I don't know. It is inconceivable that this being would give herself to a man ..• 131
