METROPOLIS Beloved frightens you more than the destruction of a continent ... All this I know, and have never possessed it I ..• No, I do not call upon your pity, Maria. But I call upon your fidelity ... (" Still. Silence. Immobility. "Do you know the subterranean City of the Dead? There, used a girl called Maria, nightly to call her brothers together. Her brothers wear the blue linen uniform, the black caps, the hard shoes. Maria spoke to her brothers of a mediator, who would come to deliver them. 'The Mediator between Brain and Hands must be the Heart .. : Wasn't it 50(The brothers of the girl believed in the girl. They waited. They waited long. But the mediator did not come. And the girl did not come. She sent no message. She was not to be found. But the brothers believed in the girl, for they had found her as true as gold. 'She will cornel' they said. 'She will come againl She is faithful. She will not leave us alonel She said: "The mediator wiIl cornel" . . . Now he must come ..• Let us be patient and let us wait' •.. I But the mediator did not come. And-the girl did not come. The misery of the brothers has grown from day to day. Where once a thousand murmured-now murmur ten thousand. They will no more be fed with hope. They languish for fight, for destruction, for ruin, for downfall. And even the believers, even the patient ones ask: 'Where is Maria? Can it be that gold is faithless?' Will you leave them without an answer, Maria?" Stillness. Silence. Immobility. "You are silent ... You are very obstinate . . . But now I shall tell you something which will surely break your obstinacy ... Do you think I am holding you captive here for fun? Do you think Joh Fredersen knew no other way of getting you out of his son's sight than shutting you up behind the Solomon's seal on- my doors? On no, Maria-oh no, my beautiful Marial We have not been idle all these days. We have stolen your beautiful soul from you-your sweet soul, that tender smile of Cod. I have listened to you as the afr has listened to you. I have seen you angry and in the depths of despair. I have seen you burning and dull as
145
