METROPOLIS He no longer felt the stones under his feet. A wave carried him, him and the girl whom l,e held clasped to hiro as though he wished to die of it-and the wave carne from the bottom of the ocean, roaring as though the whole sea were an organ; and the wave was of nre and Hung right up to the heavens. Then sinking . . . sinking . . . endlessly gliding downright down to the womb of the world, the source of the beginning.... Thirst and quenching drink ... hunger and satiation . • . pain and deliverance from it . • . death and rebirth ... "You .. :' said the man to the girl's lips. "You are really the great mediatress.... You are aU that is most sacred on earth.... You are all goodness.... You are all grace.... To doubt you is to doubt God . • • Maria-Maria-you caUed me-here I
am'"
(Behind them, in a vault that was shaped like a pointed devil's-ear, one man lennt towards another man's ear. "You wanted to have the Futura's face from me.•.• There you have your model .. :' "Is that a commissionr' "Yes.") "Now you must go. Freder," said the girl. Her Madonna eyes looked at him. "Go-and leave you here?" She turned grave and shook her head. "Nothing wiII happen to me." she said. 'There is not one, among those who know this place, whom I cannot trust as though he were my blood brother. But what is b~tween us is nobody's affair; it would vex me to have to c)(plain-" (and now she was smiling again)-"what is inexplicable. Do vou see that?" "Yes." he said. "Forgive me..•.or (Behind them, in a vault that was shaped like a pointed devil's·ear. a man took himself awav from the wall. "You know what you have to do," he said in a low voice.
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