METROPOLIS barbour of the underground railway, an ever equal, magical shimmer pressed on to be swallowed by the hurrying shadows-then the cathedral would stand there, in this boundless ocean of light, which dissolved all forms by. outshining them. the only dark object, black and persistant, seeming, in its lightlessness, to free itself from the earth, to rise higher and ever higher. and appearing in this maelstrom of tumultous light, the only reposeful and masterful object. But the Virgin on the top of the tower seemed to have her own gentle starlight, and hovered, set free from the blackness of the stone. on the sickle of the silver mOOD. above the cathedral. Freder had never seen the countenance of the Virgin and yet he knew it so well he could have drawn it: the austere countenance of the Virgin, the sweet countenance of the mother. He stooped, clasping the burning palms of his bands around the iron railing. "Look at me, Virgin," he begged, "Mother, look at me'" The spear of a searchlight flew into his eyes causing him to close them angrily. A whistling rocket hissed through the air, dropping down into the pale twilight of the afternoon, the word: Yoshiwara... . Remarkably white, and with penetrating beams. there hovered, towering up. over a house which was not to be seen. the word: Cinema. All the seven colours of the rainbow flared. cold and ghostlike in silently swinging cirdes. The enormous face of the clock on the New Tower of Babel was bathed in the glaring cross-fire of the searchlights. And over and over again from the pale. unreal-looking sky, dripped the word: Yoshiwara. Freder's eyes hung on the dock of the New Tower of Babel, where the seconds Bashed off as sparks of breathing lightning. continuous in their coming as in their going. He calculated the time which had passed since the voice of Metropolis had roared for food, for food, for' food. He knew that behind the throbbing second Bashes on the New Tower of Babel there was a wide. bare room with narrow windows. the height of the walls. switch-boards on all sides.
21
